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LIFE AT PUGET SOUND 



SKETCHES OF TRAVEL 

IN 

WASHINGTON TERRITORY, BRITISH COLUMBIA, 
OREGON, AND CALIFORNIA 

1865-1881 

BY / 
CAROLINE C. LEIGHTON 







BOSTON 
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS 

NEW YORK 
CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM 

1884 






OOPTEIGHT, 1883, 

By LEE AOT) SHEPARD. 



All rights reserved. 



PEEFACE. 



The following selections from observations and 
experiences during a residence of sixteen years on 
the Pacific Coast, while they do not claim to de- 
scribe fully that portion of the country, nor to 
give any account of its great natural wealth and 
resources, yet indicate something of its character- 
istic features and attractions, more especially those 
of the Puget Sound region. 

This remote corner of our territory, hitherto 
almost unknown to the country at large, is rap- 
idly coming into prominence, and is now made 
easy of access by the completion of the Northern 
Pacific Railroad. The vast inland sea, popularly 
known as Puget Sound, ramifying in various direc- 
tions, the wide-spreading and majestic forests, the 
ranges of snow-capped mountains on either side, 
the mild and equable climate, and the diversified 



IV PREFACE. 

resources of this favored region, excite the aston- 
ishment and admiration of all beholders. To the 
lovers of the grand and beautiful, unmarred as yet 
by any human interference, who appreciate the 
freedom from conventionalities which pertain to 
longer-settled portions of the globe, it presents an 
endless field for observation and enjoyment. There 
is already a steady stream of emigration to this 
new " land of promise," and every thing seems to 
indicate for it a vigorous growth and development, 
and a brilliant and substantial future. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Page 
At Sea. — Mariguana Island. — Sea-Birds. — Shipwreck. 

— Life on Roncador Reef. — The Rescue. — Isthmus 
of Panama. — Voyage to San Francisco. — The New- 
Baby 1 

CHAPTER II. 

Port Angeles. — Indian "Hunter " and his Wife. — Sail- 
or's Funeral. — Incantation. — Indian Graves. — 
Chief Yeomans. — Mill-Settlements. — Port Gamble 
Trail. — Canoe Travel. — The Memaloost. — Tommy 
and his Mother. — Olympic Range. — Ediz Hook. — 
Mrs. S. and her Children. — Grand Indian Wedding. 

— Crows and Indians 18 

CHAPTER III. 

Indian Chief Seattle. — Frogs and Indians. — Spring 
Flowers and Birds. — The Red Tamdhnous. — The 
Little Pend d'Oreille.— Indian Legend. — From Seat- 
tle to Fort Colville. — Crossing the Columbia River 
Bar. — The River and its Surroundings. — Its For- 
mer Magnitude.— The Grande Coulee. — Early Ex- 
plorers, Heceta, Meares, Vancouver, Grey. — Curi- 
ous Burial-Place. — Chinese Miners. — Umatilla. — 
Walla Walla. — Sage - Brush and Bunch -Grass. — 

v 



VI CONTENTS. 

Page 
Flowers in the Desert. — " Stick " Indians. — Klick- 
atats. — Spokane Indian. — Snakes. — Dead Chiefs.. 

— A Kamas Field. — Basaltic Eocks .... 38 

CHAPTER IV. 

Two Hundred Miles on the Upper Columbia. — Steamer 
" Forty -nine." — Navigation in a Canon — Pend 
d'Oreille River and Lake. — Rock-Paintings. — Trib- 
utaries of the Upper Columbia. — Arrow Lakes. — 
Kettle Falls. — Salmon-Catching. — Salmon-Dance. 

— Goose-Dance 63 

CHAPTER V. 

Old Fort Colville. — Angus McDonald and his Indian 
Family. — Canadian Yoyageurs. — Father Joseph. — 
Hardships of the Early Missionaries. — The Cceurs 
d'Alene and their Superstitions. — The Catholic 
Ladder. — Sisters of Notre Dame. — Skill of the 
Missionaries in instructing the Indians. — Father de 
Smet and the Blackfeet. — A Native Dance. — Spo- 
kanes. — Exclusiveness of the Cceurs d'Alene. — 
Battle of Four Lakes. — The Yakima Chief and the 
Road-Makers 75 

CHAPTER VI. 

Colville to Seattle. — " Red." — " Ferrins." — " Broke 
Miners." — A Rare Fellow-Traveller. — The Bell- 
Mare. — Pelouse Fall. — Red-fox Road. — Early Cal- 
ifornians. — Frying-pan Incense. — Dragon-Flies. — 
Death of the Chief Seattle 93 

CHAPTER VII. 

Port Angeles Village and the Indian Ranch. — A 
"Ship's Klootchman." — Indian Muck- a -Muck. — 
Disposition of an Old Indian Woman. — A Windy 



CONTENTS. Vll 

Page 
Trip to Victoria. — The Black Tamdhnous. — McDon- 
ald's in the Wilderness. — The Wild Cowlitz. — Up 
the River during a Flood. — Indian Boatmen. — 
Birch-bark and Cedar Canoes 109 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Voyage to San Francisco. — Fog-hound. — Port Angeles. 

— Passing Cape Flattery in a Storm. — Off Shore. — 
The "Brontes." — The Captain and his Men. — A 
Fair Wind. — San Francisco Bar. — The City at 
Night. —Voyage to Astoria. — Crescent City. — Iron- 
hound Coast. — Mount St. Helen's. — Mount Hood. 

— Cowlitz Valley and its Floods. — Monticello . . 124 



CHAPTER IX. 

Victoria. — Its Mountain Views, Rocks, and Flowers. — 
Vancouver's Admiration of the Island. — San Juan 
Islands. — Sir James Douglas. — Indian Wives. — 
Northern Indians. — Indian Workmanship. — The 
Thunder-bird. — Indian Offerings to the Spirit of a 
Child. — Pioneers. — Crows and Sea-Birds . . . 137 



CHAPTER X. 

Puget Sound and Adjacent Waters. — Its Early Explo- 
rers. — Towns, Harbors, and Channels. — Vancouver's 
Nomenclature. — Juan de Fuca. — Mount Baker. 
— Chinese " Wing." —Ancient Indian Women. — 
Pink Flowering Currant and Humming-Birds. — 
"Ah Sing." 151 

CHAPTER XL 

Rocky-mountain Region. — Railroad from Columbia 
River to Puget Sound. — Mountain Changes. — Mix- 
ture of Nationalities. — Journey to Coos Bay, Ore- 
gon. — Mountain Canon. — A Branch of the Coquille. 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

Page 

— Empire City. — Myrtle Grove. — Yaquina —Gen- 
ial Dwellers in the Woods. — Our Unknown Neigh- 
bor. — "Whales. — Pet Seal and Eagle. — A Mourning 
Mother. — Visit from Yeomans 165 

CHAPTER XII. 

Puget Sound to San Francisco. — A Model Vessel. — 
The Captain's Relation to his Men. —Rough Water. 

— Beauty of the Sea. — Golden-gate Entrance. — 
San Francisco Streets. — Santa Barbara. — Its Inva- 
lids.— Our Spanish Neighbors. — The Mountains 
and the Bay. — Kelp. — Old Mission. — A Simoom. — 
The Channel Islands. — A New Type of Chinamen. 

— An Old Spanish House 182 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Our Aerie.— The Bay and the Hills. — The Little 
Gnome. — Earthquake. — Temporary Residents. — 
The Trade-Wind. — Seal-Rocks. — Farallon Islands. 

— Exhilarating Air. — Approach of Summer. — Cen- 
tennial Procession. — Suicides. — Mission Dolores. — 
Father Pedro Font and his Expedition. — The Mis- 
sion Indians. — Chinese Feast of the Dead. — Curi- 
ous Weather 199 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Quong. — His Prote'gt. — His Peace-Offering. — The Chi- 
nese and their Grandmothers. — Ancient Ideas. — 
Irish, French, and Spanish Chinamen. — Chinese 
Ingenuity. — Hostility against the Chinese. — Their 
Proclamations. — Discriminations against them. — 
Their Evasion of the Law. — Their Perseverance 
against all Obstacles. — Their Reverence for their 
Ancestors, and Fear of the Dead. — Their Medical 
Knowledge. — Their Belief in the Future. — Their 
Curious Festivals. — Indian Names for the Months. 



CONTENTS. IX 

Page 

— Resemblance between the Indians and Chinese. 

— Their Superstitions 220 

CHAPTER XV. 

Chun Fa's Funeral. — Alameda. — Gophers and Lizards. 

— Poison Oak. — Sturdy Trees. — Baby Lizards. — 
Old Alameda. — Emperor Norton. — California Gen- • 
erosity. — The Dead Newsboy. — Anniversary of 
the Goddess Kum Fa. — Chinese Regard for the 
Moon and Flowers. — A Shin Worshipper . . . 242 



LIFE AT PUGET SOUND. 



At Sea. — Mariguana Island. — Sea-Birds. — Shipwreck. — 
Life on Roneador Reef. —The Rescue. — Isthmus of Pana- 
ma. — Voyage to San Francisco. — The New Baby. 

Atlantic Ocean, May 26, 1865. 

IT is a great experience to feel the loneliness 
of the sea, — to see the whole circle of the 
heavens, and nothing under it but the rising 
and falling water, from morning till night, day- 
after day. 

The first night we were out the porpoises 
came up at twilight, and sported round the ves- 
sel. I saw some sea-birds that seemed to be 
playing, — running and sliding on the green, 
glassy waves. In the wake of the vessel were 
most beautiful changing colors. Little Nelly 
S. sat with us to watch the phosphorescence. 
She said, " The stars in the sea call to me, with 
little fine voices, 'Nelly, Nelly, are you alive?' " 

1 



2 MARI GUANA ISLAND. 

May 27, 1865. 

We have had our first sight of land, — Mari- 
guana, a coral island, one of the Bahamas. 
Every one stood in silence to see it, it was so 
beautiful. The spray dashed so high, that, as 
it fell, we at first took it for streams and cas- 
cades. It was just at sunrise ; and we cast long- 
ing looks at the soft green hills, bathed in light. 
Now it is gone, and we have only the wide ocean 
again. But a new color has appeared in the 
water, — a purplish pink, which looks very trop- 
ical ; and there are blotches of yellow seaweed. 
Some of it caught in the wheel, and stopped it. 
The sailors drew it up, and gave it to the chil- 
dren to taste. It was like a little fruit, and 
they say the birds eat it. 

The sea is growing quite rough. I was think- 
ing of being a little afraid, the vessel plunged 
so ; but Mother Cary's chickens came out, and 
I thought I might as well consider myself as 
one of them, and not in any more danger than 
they are. 

Caribbean Sea, May 28, 1865. 

We have had a great experience of really 
rough weather. The spray dashed over the 
deck, and only the hardiest could keep up. Any 
one who tried to move was thrown off his feet. 
Preparations were made for divine service by 



SEA-BIRDS. 3 

lashing two boxes together in the middle of the 
deck, and spreading a flag over them. It was 
conducted by a Scotch Presbyterian minister. 
As he began his prayer, he received quite an 
addition to his congregation, in a flock of great 
birds, that appeared on my side of the vessel. 
They wheeled round, and settled down softly 
together. I do not know what they are, but 
suppose they are gulls of some kind. They 
have long, narrow wings, brown, with a little 
black, and snow-white underneath. I am half 
inclined to envy these wild, soulless creatures, 
that know no fear. 

Eoxcador Reef, June 5, 1865. 

On Tuesday morning, May 30, between three 
and four o'clock, we were awakened by the 
sharp stroke of the engine-bell, a deep grinding 
sound, and the sudden stopping of the vessel. 
We knew that we had not arrived at our port 
of destination, and felt instinctively that some- 
thing extraordinary had happened. For a mo- 
ment all was silence ; then inquiries arose from 
all sides, as to what was the matter. The engine 
seemed to be in a great state of commotion ; and 
the vessel began to writhe with a heavy, labori- 
ous movement, as if attempting to free herself 
from the grasp of some monster. We dressed 



4 SHIPWRECK. 

hastily, and went into the cabin, where we found 
a good many of the passengers, and learned that 
the vessel had struck on a coral-reef. We put 
on life-preservers, and sat waiting until daylight, 
expecting every moment the vessel would split. 
As soon as it was light enough, we went upon 
deck, and saw the sailors cut away the masts 
and smoke-stacks, which went over the side of 
the ship. The water dashed over the deck, so 
that we were obliged to go below. It seemed 
there as if we were under the ocean, with the 
water breaking over our heads. Chandeliers, 
glasses, and other movable articles were crash- 
ing together around us. The cabin was rilled 
with people, quietly sitting, ready for they knew 
not what. But among all the seven hundred 
passengers there was no shrieking nor crying 
nor groaning, except from the little children, 
who were disturbed by the noise and discomfort. 
How well they met the expectation of death ! 
Faces that I had passed as most ordinary, fasci- 
nated me by their quiet, firm mouths, and eyes 
so beautiful, I knew it must be the soul I saw 
looking through them. Some parties of Swedish 
emigrants took out their little prayer-books, 
and sat clasping each other's hands, and read- 
ing them. A missionary bound for Micronesia 
handed out his tracts in all directions, but no 



SHIPWRECK. 5 

one took much notice of them. Generally, each 
one seemed to feel that he could meet death 
alone, and in his own way. 

In the afternoon a faint semblance of land 
was seen off on the horizon, and a boat was sent 
out to explore. It was gone a long time, and 
as night approached was anxiously looked for. 
Just about dark, it appeared in sight. As it 
drew near, we saw the men in it waving their 
hats, and heard them shouting, by which we 
knew they had succeeded in finding land. The 
men on the vessel gave a hearty response, but 
the women could not keep back their tears. 

That night the women and children were 
lowered with ropes, over the side of the vessel, 
into boats, and taken to a raft near by, hastily 
constructed on the rocks at the surface of the 
water, from loose spars, stateroom-doors, and 
such other available material as could be secured 
from the vessel. All night long we lay there, 
watching the dim outline of the ship, which 
still had the men on board, as she rose and fell 
with each wave, — the engine-bell tolling with 
every shock. The lights that hung from the 
side of the vessel increased the wild, funereal 
appearance of every thing about us. They 
continually advanced and receded, and seemed 
to motion us to follow them. There was a 



6 LANDING ON RONCADOR REEF. 

strange fascination about them, which I could 
not resist; and I watched them through the 
whole night. 

At daylight the next morning the ship's 
boats began to take us over to the island dis- 
covered the day before, which was slightly ele- 
vated above the surface of the water, and about 
four miles distant from the wreck. As we ap- 
proached the shore, some new birds, unlike any I 
had seen before, — indolent-looking, quiet, and 
amiable, — flew out, and hovered over the boat, 
peering down at us, as if inquiring what 
strange creatures were about to invade their 
home. Probably they had never seen any hu- 
man beings before. The sailors said they were 
" boobies ; " and they certainly appeared very 
unsophisticated, aiid quite devoid 'of the wit 
and sprightliness of most birds. 

Only a few persons could be landed at a time, 
and I wandered about at first almost alone. It 
was two days before all the passengers were 
transferred. Every thing was so new and 
strange, that I felt as if I had been carried 
off to another planet; and it certainly was a 
great experience, to walk over a portion of the 
globe just as it was made, and wholly unaltered 
by man. 

I thought of an account of a wreck on this 



LIFE ON RON CAD OR REEF. 7 

same water I had once read, in which the Carib- 
bean was spoken of as the most beautiful 
though most treacherous of seas, and the in- 
tensity of color was mentioned. Such rose- 
color I never saw before as in the shells and 
mosses we find here, nor such lovely pale and 
green tints as the water all about us shows. 

We have been here on this bare reef six days, 
with the ' breakers all around us, and do not 
know whether we shall get off or not. We 
amuse ourselves every morning with looking at 
the pert little birds, as queer as the boobies, 
though quite different from them, that sit and 
nod to each other incessantly, and give each 
other little hits with their bills, as if these were 
their morning salutations, — a rough way of ask- 
ing after each other's health. 

San Francisco, July 2, 1865. 

We are safely here at last, after forty-two 
clays' passage, — longer than the children of 
Israel were in the wilderness. When we return 
it will be by a wagon-train, if the Pacific Rail- 
road is not done. 

When we landed on Roncador Reef, we had 
no data for conjecturing where we were, ex- 
cept that we remembered passing the island of 
Jamaica at twilight on the evening preceding 



8 LIFE ON RON CAD OR REEF. 

the wreck. We were afterwards informed that 
the vessel was seized by a strong current, and 
borne far away from her proper course. How 
gay we were that night, with our music and 
dancing, exhilarated all the more by the swift- 
ness of the white, rushing water that drove us 
on to our fate ! 

The heat on the island was so intense, that 
our greatest necessity was for some shelter from 
the sun. The only materials which the place 
furnished us were rocks of coral, with which we 
built up walls, over which were spread pieces 
of sail from the vessel. We lived in these 
lodges, in little companies. We sat together in 
ours in the daytime, and could not leave our 
shelter for a moment without feeling as if we 
were sunstruck. Every night we abandoned it, 
and slept out on the rocks; but the frequent 
little showers proved so uncomfortable that we 
were driven to great extremity to devise some 
covering. E.'s ingenuity proved equal to the 
emergency. He secured an opportunity to visit 
the vessel (which held together for some days) 
in one of the boats which were continually ply- 
ing between her and the island, bringing over 
all available stores. All the mattresses and 
other bedding that could be secured had been 
distributed, mostly to the mothers and children. 



LIFE ON RON CAD OR REEF. 9 

His penetrating eye detected the materials for 
a coverlet in the strips of painted canvas nailed 
to the deck. He managed without tools to tear 
off some pieces, and, by untwisting some tarred 
rope, to fasten them together; thus providing 
a quilt, which, if not comfortable, was at least 
waterproof, and served to draw over us when a 
shower came on. It was no protection, how- 
ever, against the crabs, large and small, that 
used to crawl under it, and eat pieces out of 
our clothes, and even our boots, while we were 
asleep. These crabs were of the hermit order. 
Each one, from the minutest to the largest, 
had taken possession of the einpty shell of some 
other creature, exactly large enough for him, 
and walked about with it on his back, and drew 
himself snugly into it when molested. Every 
little crevice in the rocks had a white or speck- 
led egg in it when we landed, and from these 
we made a few good meals. The one day the 
women spent on the island alone with the birds 
passed in the most friendly manner ; but after 
the men and boys came, the larger ones aban- 
doned us. 

We felt sorry not to bring away some of the 
beautiful shells which were plentiful there, and 
more gorgeous than any thing I ever saw before. 
While the living creature is in them, they are 



10 LIFE ON RONCADOR REEF. 

much brighter than after it is dead ; and in the 
length of time it takes to bring them from tropi- 
cal countries, they fade almost like flowers. 
Mrs. S. was so enterprising, and, I must say, 
so unsesthetic, as to try to concoct a meal from 
the occupants of some of the large conch-shells 
taken from the beach, cooking it for a consider- 
able length of time in a large brass kettle, the 
only available utensil. Those who partook of 
it in our little group had cause to repent of their 
rashness ; but we did not like to charge the in- 
jury to the lovely creatures which were sacri- 
ficed for this feast, preferring to " blame it on " 
to the brass kettle, as the California children 
would express it. The more cautious ones 
contented themselves with their two sea-bis- 
cuits and fragment of beef or pork per day, 
which were the regular rations served to each 
from the stores saved from the ship. Some 
surface water, found among the rocks, was 
carefully guarded, and sparingly dealt out. 

After we had been four or five days on the 
island, two of the ship's boats were sent out to 
seek assistance, manned by volunteer crews ; 
one headed for Aspinwall, which was thought 
to be about two hundred and fifty miles distant, 
and the other to search for what was supposed 
to be the nearest land. 



THE RESCUE. 11 

Very early on the morning of the tenth day 
we heard the cry of " A sail ! " We started up 
from our rocky beds, and stood, without daring 
to speak. There was a little upright shadow, 
about as large as a finger, against the sky. 
Every eye was turned to it, but no one yet 
dared to confirm it; and, even if it were a sail, 
those on board the vessel might not see our 
island, it was so low, or our flag of distress, as 
we had nothing on which to raise it very high. 
We stood for several minutes, without daring 
to look at each other with the consciousness 
that we were saved. We presently saw that 
there were two little schooners beating up 
against the wind, directly towards us, and that 
they carried the red English flag. They had 
been catching turtles on the Mosquito Coast. 
As soon as our boat reached them, they unloaded 
their turtles (which occupied them a day), with 
the exception of three large ones which they 
reserved for us, and then started at once. 

These small vessels were unequal to carrying 
away half the people on the island, and they 
had no arrangements for the comfort of passen- 
gers. A considerable number decided to em- 
bark on them, and commenced doing so; while 
the larger part of the company remained on the 
spot, to take their chance of escape in some 



12 TEE RESCUE. 

other way, since communication with the world 
was now established. 

The next day we were all rejoiced by the 
appearance of two United-States gunboats from 
Aspinwall, which point was reached by our 
other boat, after a rough experience ; the waves 
having capsized her during the passage, and 
swallowed up the provisions and nautical in- 
struments. 

It was then decided that all the company 
should be taken to Aspinwall by the United- 
States vessels, and their boats and ours were at 
once put to service in transferring the people 
from the island ; who, as they gathered up such 
fragments of their property as had been rescued 
from the wreck, and tied it up in bedquilts or 
blankets, shouldered their bundles, and moved 
slowly down to the point of departure, — their 
garments weather-stained and crab-eaten, some 
of them without shoes or hats, and all with 
much-bronzed faces, — presented a picturesque 
and beggarly appearance, in striking contrast 
to their aspect before the wreck. 

We were treated with the greatest kindness 
by every one connected with the gunboats. 
They took us in their arms, and carried us into 
the boats, and stood all night beside us, offering 
ice-water and wine. They greatly bewailed our 



THE RESCUE. 13 

misfortunes, and told us, that, when they heard 
of our condition, they put on every pound of 
steam the vessels would bear, in order to reach 
us as speedily as possible, fearing that some 
greater calamity might befall us, — that our sup- 
ply of water might entirely fail, or that the 
trade-wind might change, and a storm bring 
the sea over the island. They told us, too, that 
we were very far off the track of vessels; and, if 
our boats had failed to bring succor, in all prob- 
ability no one would ever have come there in 
search of us. 

The two schooners decided to remain a while, 
and wreck the vessel. As we steamed away 
from the reef, we passed her huge skeleton upon 
the rocks, the bell still hanging to the iron part 
of the frame. 

On the second clay we reached Aspinwall, and 
disembarked. As we sat on the wharf, in little 
groups, on pieces of lumber or on our bundles, 
waiting for arrangements to be made for our 
transportation across the Isthmus, a black man, 
employed there, fixed his eye upon our dark- 
skinned Julia, and, approaching, asked if she 
"got free in the Linkum war." I told him 
that she did, and asked him where he came 
from. He said he was from Jamaica; and I 
said, " I suppose you have been free a long 



14 ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 

time ? " to which he replied, with great energy, 
"Before I was born, I was free," and repeated 
it again. and again, — "before I was born." 

We found that Julia, to whom all things were 
new in the land of freedom, thought that the 
island where we spent so many days was a regu- 
lar stopping-place on the way to California, and 
that the wreck was a legitimate mode of stop- 
ping ; as one day she inquired if that was the 
way they always went to San Francisco, and 
said, if she had known travelling was so hard, 
she would not have started. This accounted 
for her equanimity, which surprised me, after 
the vessel struck the reef, as she sat quietly eat- 
ing her cakes, while every thing was going to 
destruction around us, and the sea broke above 
our heads. 

In crossing the Isthmus of Panama, we were 
delighted with the neat appearance of the na- 
tives, whom we saw along the roadside, or sit- 
ting in their little huts near by, which were 
made of the trunks of the tall palm-trees, in 
columns, open at the side, and thatched with 
leaves. These people were clad in clean white 
garments, the women with muslins and laces 
drooping from their bare shoulders, and with 
bright flowers in their hair. 

On reaching Panama, the women there greeted 



VOYAGE TO SAN FRANCISCO. 15 

us with great kindness and sympathy. One of 
them threw her arms around one of the first 
women of our party that she saw,' and exclaimed, 
" Oh, we have thought so much about you ! we 
were afraid you would die for want of water." 
It seemed strange that they should have cared 
so much, when a little while before they never 
knew of our existence. I felt as if I had hardly 
had a chance before in my life to know what 
mere humanity meant, apart from individual 
interest, and how strong a feeling it is. We 
realized still more the kindness of these " dear, 
dark-eyed sisters," when we opened the trunk 
of clothing which they sent on board the 
" America," the steamer that took us to San 
Francisco. 

The voyage up the Pacific coast was long and 
wearisome. For some days we felt seriously the 
ill effects of the island life and the tropic heat, 
and could only endure ; until, one morning, we 
came up on deck, and there were the beautiful 
serrated hills of Old California. We had rounded 
Cape St. Lucas, and had a strong, exhilarating 
breeze from the coast, and began to be ourselves 
again. 

The monotony of our sea-life was broken by 
one event of special interest, — the addition of 
another human being to our large number. I 



16 THE NEW BABY. 

must mention first, — for it seems as if they 
brought her, — that all one day we sailed in a 
cloud of beautiful gray-and-white gulls, flying 
incessantly over and around us, with their pretty 
orange bills and fringed wings and white fan- 
tails. They were very gentle and dove-like. 
They staid with us only that day. The last 
thing that I saw at night, far into the dark, was 
one flying after us ; and, the next morning, we 
heard of the birth of the baby. She was chris- 
tened in the cabin, the day after, by the Micro- 
nesian missionarjr, in the presence of a large 
company. A conch-shell from the reef served 
as the christening-basin. The American flag 
was festooned overhead ; and, as far as possible, 
the cabin was put into festive array. She was 
named "Roncadora America," from the reef, 
and the vessel on which she was born. The 
captain gave her some little garments he was 
carrying home to his own unborn baby, and the 
gold ties for her sleeves. When her name was 
pronounced, the ship's gun was fired ; then the 
captain addressed the father, who held her, and 
presented him with a purse of fifty dollars from 
the passengers, ending in triumph with — 



"And now, my friends, see Roncadora, 
With freedom's banner floating o'er her. ! 



THE NEW BABY. 17 

The father then uncovered her; she having made 
herself quite apparent before by wrestling with 
her little fists under the counterpane, and utter- 
ing a variety of wild and incomprehensible 
sounds. She proved a handsome baby, large 
and red, with a profusion of soft, dark hair. 



II. 



Port Angeles. — Indian " Hunter " and his "Wife. — Sailor's 
Funeral. — Incantation. — Indian Graves. — Chief Yeo- 
mans. — Mill Settlements. — Port Gamble Trail. — Canoe 
Travel. — The Memaloost. — Tommy and his Mother. 
Olympic Eange. — Ediz Hook. — Mrs. S. and her Children. 
— Grand Indian Wedding. — Crows and Indians. 

Port Angeles, "Washington Territory, 
July 20, 1865. 

WE reached here day before yesterday, 
very early in the morning. We were 
called to the forward deck ; and before us was 
a dark sea-wall of mountains, with misty ra- 
vines and silver peaks, — the Olympic Range, 
a fit home for the gods. 

A fine blue veil hung over the water, be- 
tween us and the shore ; and, the air being too 
heavy for the smoke of the Indian village to 
rise, it lay in great curved lines, like dim, rain- 
bow-colored serpents, over sea and land. 

I thought it was the loveliest place I had 
ever seen. The old Spanish explorers must 
have thought so too, as they named it "Port 
of the Angels." 

18 



PORT ANGELES. 19 

We found that the path to our house was an 
Indian trail, winding about a mile up the bluff 
from the beach; the trees shutting overhead, 
and all about us a drooping white spirea, a 
most bridal-looking flower. Here and there, 
on some precipitous bank, was the red Indian- 
flame. Every once in a while, we came to a 
little opening looking down upon the sea ; and 
the sound of it was always in our ears. At 
last we reached a partially cleared space, and 
there stood the house ; behind it a mountain 
range, with snow filling all the ravines, and, 
below, the fulness and prime of summer. We 
are nearly at the foot of the hills, which send 
us down their snow-winds night and morning, 
and their ice-cold water. Between us and them 
are the fir-trees, two hundred and fifty and 
three hundred feet high ; and all around, in the 
burnt land, a wilderness of bloom, — the purple 
fireweed, that grows taller than our heads, and 
in the richest luxuriance, of the same color as 
the Alpine rose, — a beautiful foreground for 
snowy hills. 

The house is not ready for us. We are 
obliged at present, for want of a chimney, to 
stop with our nearest neighbor. But we pay 
it frequent visits. Yesterday, as we sat there, 
we received a call from two Indians, in extreme 



20 INDIAN "HUNTER" AND HIS WIFE. 

undress. They walked in with perfect freedom, 
and sat down on the floor. We shall endeavor 
to procure from Victoria a dictionary of the 
Haidah, Chinook, and other Indian languages, 
by the aid of which we shall be able to receive 
such visitors in a more satisfactory manner. 
At present, we can only smile very much at 
them. Fortunately, on this occasion, our car- 
penter was present, who told us that the man 
was called " Hunter," which served as an intro- 
duction. Hunter took from the woman a white 
bag, in which was a young wild bird, and put it 
into my hands. The carpenter said that this 
Indian had done some work for him, bringing 
up lumber from the beach, etc., and had come 
for his pay; that he would not take a white 
man's word for a moment, but if, in making an 
agreement with him, a white man gave him a 
little bit of paper with any tiling written on it, 
he was perfectly satisfied, and said, " You my 
tilikum [relation] — I wait." 

The neighbor with whom we are stopping 
says, that, the night before we came, a wildcat 
glared in at her as she sat at her window. 

It looks very wild here, the fir-trees are so 
shaggy. I think the bears yet live under them. 
Many of the trees are dead. When the setting 
sun lights up the bare, pointed trunks, the 



SAILOR'S FUNERAL. 21 

great troops of firs look like an army with 
spears of gold, climbing the hills. 

July 30, 1865. 

To-day, as we were descending by the trail 
from the bluff to the beach, we saw a funeral 
procession slowly ascending the wagon-road. 
It came from the Sailors' Hospital. We waited 
until it passed. The cart containing the coffin 
was drawn by oxen, and followed by a little 
white dog and a few decrepit sailors. There 
was no sign of mourning, but a reverent look 
in their faces. The body had been wrapped in 
a flag by brotherly hands. The deep music 
of the surf followed them, and the dark fir- 
branches met overhead. 

In California, the poorest of people, by the 
competition of undertakers, are furnished, at low 
rates, with the use of silver-mounted hearses 
and nodding plumes, a shrouding of crape, and 
a long line of carriages. Even those who have 
really loved the one who is gone seem, in some 
incomprehensible way, to find a solace in these 
manifestations, and would have considered this 
sailor's solitary funeral the extreme of deso- 
lation. But Nature took him gently to her 
bosom ; the soft sky and the fragrant earth 
seemed to be calling him home. 



22 INCANTATION. 

We found by inquiry that it was the funeral 
of an entirely unknown sailor, who had not even 
any distant friends to whom he wished mes- 
sages sent. His few possessions he left for the 
use of the children of the place, and quietly 
closed his e} T es among strangers, returning 
peacefully to the unknown country whence he 
came. 

Aug. 2, 1865. 

We went this morning to an Indian Tamdh- 
nous (incantation), to drive away the evil spirits 
from a sick man. He lay on a mat, surrounded 
b}^ women, who beat on instruments made by 
stretching deer-skin over a frame, and accom- 
panied the noise thus produced by a monoto- 
nous wail. Once in a while it became quite 
stirring, and the sick man seemed to be im- 
proved by it. Then an old man crept in 
stealthily, on all-fours, and, stealing up to him, 
put his mouth to the flesh, here and there, ap- 
parently sucking out the disease. 

Aug. 17, 1865. 
Hunter stopped to rest to-day on our door- 
steps. He had a haunch of elk-meat on his 
back, one end resting on his head, with a cush- 
ion of green fern-leaves. He called me " Clos7ie 
twm-tum" (Good Heart), and gave me a great 
many beautiful smiles. * 



INDIAN GRAVES. 23 

We find that there are a number of canoes 
suspended in the large fir-trees on some of our 
land, with the mummies of Indians in them. 
These are probably the bodies of chiefs, or per- 
sons of high rank. There is also a graveyard 
on the beach, which is gay with bright blank- 
ets, raised like flags, or spread out and nailed 
upon the roofs over the graves, and myriads 
of tin pans : we counted thirty on one grave. 
A looking-glass is one of the choicest of the 
decorations. On one we noticed an old trunk, 
and others were adorned with rusty guns. 

Last night there came a prolonged, heavy, 
booming sound, different from any thing we had 
heard before. In the morning we saw that 
there had been a great landslide on the moun- 
tain back of us, bringing down rocks and trees. 

Aug. 30, 1865. 

Yeoman s, an old Indian chief, the Tyee of 
the Flat-heads at Port Angeles, came to see us 
to-day. He pointed to himself, and said, " Me 
all the same white man ; " explaining that he did 
not paint his face, nor drink whiskey. Mrs. 
S., at the light-house, said that she had fre- 
quently invited him to dinner, and that he 
handled his napkin with perfect propriety ; al- 
though he is often to be seen sitting cross-legged 
on the sand, eating his meal of sea-urchins. 



24 CHIEF YEOMANS. 

He is very dramatic, and described to us by 
sounds only, without our understanding any of 
the words, how wild the water was at Cape 
Flattery, and how the ships were rocked about 
there. It was thrilling to hear the sounds of 
the winds as he represented them : I felt as if 
I were in the midst of a great storm. 

His little tribe appear to have great respect 
for his authority as a chief, and show a proper 
deference towards him. He is a mild and gen- 
tle ruler, and not overcome by the pride and 
dignity of his position. He is always ready 
to assist in dragging our boat on to the beach, 
and does not disdain the dime offered him iu 
compensation for the service. 

His son, a grown man, no longer young, who 
introduced himself to us as "Mr. Yeomans's 
son," and who appears to have no other desig- 
nation, is much more of a wild Indian than the 
old man. Sometimes I see him at night, going 
out with his klootchman in their little canoe ; 
she, crouched in her scarlet blanket at one end, 
holding the dark sail, and the great yellow 
moon shining on them. 

I used to wonder, when we first came here, 
what their interests were, and what they were 
thinking about all the time. Little by little we 
find out. To-night he came in to tell us that 



MILL SETTLEMENTS. 25 

there was going to be a great potlach at the 
coal-mines, where a large quantity of Octets 
would be given away, — tin pans, guns, blan- 
kets, canoes, and money. How his eyes glistened 
as he described it ! It seems that any one who 
aspires to be a chief must first give a ijotlach 
to his tribe, at which he dispenses among them 
all his possessions. 

This afternoon, as I sat at my window, my 
attention was attracted by a little noise. I 
looked up; and there was a beautiful young 
Indian girl, holding up a basket of fruit, of the 
same color as her lips and cheeks. It was a 
delicious wild berry that grows here, known as 
the red huckleberry. Mrs. S. knew her, and 
told me that she was the daughter of the old 
chief, lately betrothed to a Cape-Flattery In- 
dian. 

Sept. 20, 1865. 

Everywhere about Puget Sound and the ad- 
joining waters are little arms of the sea running 
up into the land, like the fiords of Northern 
Europe. Many of them have large sawmills 
at the head. We have been travelling about, 
stopping here and there at the little settlements 
around the mills. We were everywhere most 
hospitably received. All strangers are welcomed 
as guests. Every thing seems so comfortable, 



26 MILL SETTLEMENTS. 

and on such a liberal scale, that we never think 
of the people as poor, although the richest here 
have only bare wooden walls, and a few articles 
of furniture, often home-made. It seems, rather, 
as if we had moved two or three generations 
back, when no one had any thing better ; or, as 
if we might perhaps be living in feudal times, 
these great mill-owners have such authority in 
the settlements. Some of them possess very 
large tracts of land, have hundreds of men in 
their employ, own steamboats and hotels, and 
have large stores of general merchandise, in con- 
nection with their mill-business. They some- 
times provide amusements for the men, — little 
dramatic entertainments, etc., — to keep them 
from resorting to drink ; and encourage them to 
send for their families, and to make gardens 
around their houses. 

The house where we stopped at Port Madison 
was very attractive. The maple- trees had been 
cut down to build it; but life is so vigorous 
here, that they grew up under the porch, and 
then, as they became taller, came outside, and 
curved up around it, so that it was a perfect 
nest. The maple here is not just like the East- 
ern tree, but has a larger, darker leaf. Inside, 
the rooms were large and low, with great fire- 
places filled with flaming logs, that illuminated 
them brilliantly. 



PORT GAMBLE TRAIL. 27 

We began our expedition round the Sound 
in a plunger, — the most atrocious little craft 
ever constructed. Its character is well ex- 
pressed by its name. These boats are danger- 
ous enough in steady hands ; but, as they are 
exceedingly likely to be becalmed, the danger 
is very much increased from the temptation to 
drink that seems always to assail the captain 
and men in these wearisome delays. 

To avoid waiting two or three days at Port 
Madison for the steamer, we determined to 
cross to the next port by an Indian trail through 
the woods ; though we were told that it was 
very rough travelling, and that no white woman 
had ever crossed there, and, also, that we might 
have to take circuitous routes to avoid fires. 
We started early in the morning, allowing the 
whole day for the journey. We passed through 
one of the burnt regions, where the trees were 
still standing, so gray and spectral that it was 
like a strange dream. Farther along we heard 
a prolonged, mournful sound, that we could not 
account for ; but, in a little while, we came to 
where the bright flames were darting from the 
trunks and branches, and curling around them. 
The poor old trees were creaking and groaning, 
preparatory to falling. We were obliged, occa- 
sionally, to abandon the trail; or, rather, it 



28 PORT GAMBLE TRAIL. 

abandoned . us, being burnt through. Off the 
path, the underbrush was almost impassable ; 
the vine-maple, with crooked stems and tangled 
branches, with coarse briers and vines, knit 
every thing together. It seemed more like a 
tropical than a northern forest, there were so 
many glossy evergreen leaves. We recognized 
among them the holly-leaf barberry (known 
also as the Oregon grape), one of the most 
beautiful of shrubs. Its pretty clusters of yel- 
low flowers were withered, and its fruit not yet 
ripK ~~ We found also the sallal, — the Indian's 
berry, — the salmon-colored raspberry, and the 
coral-red huckleberry. Occasionally we heard 
the scream of a hawk, or the whirring of great 
wings above our heads ; but, for the most part, 
we tramped on in perfect silence. The woods 
were too dark and dense for small birds. 

It was curious to notice how much some of 
the little noises sounded like whispers, or like 
footsteps. There was hardly a chance that 
there could be any other human beings there 
besides ourselves. It recalled to me the Indian's 
dread of skookums (spirits) in the deep woods. 
To him, the mere flutter of a leaf had a mean- 
ing ; the sighing of the wind was intelligible 
language. So many generations of Indians had 
crossed that trail, and so few white people, I 



PORT GAMBLE TRAIL. 29 

felt as if some subtile aroma of Indian spirit 
must linger still about the place, and steal into 
our thoughts. Occasionally an owl stirred in 
the thicket beside us, or we caught a glimpse 
of the mottled beauty of a snake gliding across 
our path. The great boom and crash of the 
falling trees startled us, until we were used to 
it, and understood it. 

Whenever we left the trail, we felt some 
doubt lest we might not find it again, or might 
happen upon an impassable stream that would 
cut us off from farther progress ; not feeling 
quite equal to navigating with a pole on a snag, 
after the fashion of the Indians. 

Near sunset, when the woods began to grow 
darker around us, we saw a bird, about as large 
as a robin, with a black crescent on his breast. 
His song was very different from that of the 
robin, and consisted of five or six notes, regu- 
larly descending in minor key. It thrilled me 
to hear it in the solitary woods : it was like the 
wail of an Indian spirit. 

It began to be quite a serious question to us, 
what we were to do for the night ; as how near 
or how far Port Gamble might be, we could not 
tell. There was no possibility of our climbing 
the straight fir-trees, with branches high over- 
head ; and to stop on the ground was not to be 



30 CANOE TRAVEL. 

thought of, for fear of wild beasts. We hastened 
on, but the trail became almost undistinguish- 
able before the lights of Port Gamble appeared 
below us. As we descended to the settlement, 
we were met with almost as much excitement 
on the part of the mill people, who had never 
crossed the trail, as if we had risen from the 
water, or floated down from the sky, among 
them. 

We take great satisfaction in the recollection 
of this one day of pure Indian life. 

The next day we decided to try a canoe. 
We should not have ventured to go alone with 
the Indians, not understanding their talk ; but 
another passenger was to go with us, who rep- 
resented that he had learned the only word it 
would be necessary to use. He explained to us, 
after we started, that the word vias " hyac" 
which meant " hurry up ; " the only danger being 
that we should not reach Port Townsend before 
dark, as they were apt to proceed in so leisurely 
a way when left to themselves. After a while, 
the bronze paddlers — two siwashes (men) and 
two Mootchmen (women) — began to show some 
abatement of zeal in their work, and our fellow- 
passenger pronounced the talismanic word, with 
some emphasis ; whereat they laughed him to 
scorn, and made some sarcastic remarks, half 



CANOE TRAVEL. 31 

Chinook and half English, from which we 
gathered that they advised him, if he wanted 
to reach Port Townsend before dark, to tell the 
sun to stop, and not tell them to hurry up. We 
could only look on, and admire their magnifi- 
cent indifference. They stopped whenever they 
liked, and laughed, and told stories. The sky 
darkened in a very threatening way, and a 
heavy shower came on ; but it made not the 
slightest difference to them. After it was over, 
there was a splendid rainbow, like the great 
gate of heaven. This animated the Indians, 
and their spirits rose, so that they began to 
sing ; and we drifted along with them, catching 
enough of their careless, joyous mood, not to 
worry about Port Townsend, although we did 
not reach the wharf till two or three hours after 
dark. 

A clay or two after, we found, rather to our 
regret, that we should be obliged to take a canoe 
again, from Port Discovery. The intoxicated 
" Duke of Wellington " — an Indian with a 
wide gold band round his hat, and a dilapidated 
naval uniform — came down, and invited us to 
go in his sloop. We politely declined the offer, 
and selected Tommy, the only Indian, we were 
told, who did not drink. With the aid of some 
of the bystanders, we asked his views of the 



32 THE MEMALOOST. 

weather. He said there would undoubtedly be 
plenty of wind, and plenty of rain, but it 
would not make any difference : he had mats 
enough, and we could stop in the woods. But, 
as we had other ideas of comfort, we waited two 
days ; and, as the weather was still unsettled, 
we took the precaution, before starting, to give 
him his directions for the trip : " Halo wind, 
Port Angeles ; hyiu wind, Dungeness," meaning 
that we were to have the privilege of stopping 
at Dungeness if it should prove too stormy to 
go on. So he and his little Mootchman, about 
as big as a child of ten, took us off. When we 
reached the portage over which they had to 
carry the canoe, he pointed out the place of the 
memaloost (the dead). I see the Indians often 
bury them between two bodies of water, and 
have wondered if this had any significance to 
them. I have noticed, too, that their burial- 
places have always wild and beautiful surround- 
ings. At this place, the blue blankets over the 
graves waved in the wind, like the wings of 
some great bird. A chief was buried here ; and 
some enormous wooden figures, rudely carved, 
stood to guard him. They looked old and worn. 
They had long, narrow eyes, high cheek-bones, 
and long upper lips, like true Indians, with 
these features somewhat exaggerated. 



TOMMY AND HIS MOTHER. 33 

We tried to talk with Tommy a little about 
the memaloost. He said it was all the same with 
an Indian, whether he was memaloost, or on the 
illahie (the earth) ; meaning that he was equally 
alive. We were told at the store, that Tommy 
still bought sugar and biscuits for his child who 
had died. 

When we reached the other side of the por- 
tage, the surf roared so loud, it seemed frightful 
to launch the canoe in it ; but Tommy praised R. 
as skookum (very strong) in helping to conduct it 
over. He seemed much more good-natured than 
the Indians we had travelled with before. He 
smiled at the loon floating past us, and spoke 
to it. 

When we reached Dungeness, he represented 
that it would be very rough outside, in the 
straits. So he took us to a farmhouse. I began 
to suspect his motive, when I saw that there 
was a large Indian encampment there, and he 
pointed to some one he said was all the same 
as his mamma. It was the exact representa- 
tion of a sphinx, — an old gray creature lying 
on the sand, with the upper part of her body 
raised, and her lower limbs concealed by her 
blanket. I expected to see Tommy run and 
embrace her: but he walked coolly by, with- 
out giving her any greeting whatever; and 



34 EDIZ HOOK. 

she remained perfectly imperturbable, never 
stirred, and her expression did not change in 
the least. I was horror-stricken, but afterwards 
altered my views of her, and came to the con- 
clusion that she was a good, kind mother, only 
that it was their way to refrain from all appear- 
ance of emotion. When we started the next 
morning, she came down to the canoe with the 
little klootchman, loaded with presents, which she 
carried in a basket on her back, supported by a 
broad band round her head, — smoking-hot veni- 
son, and a looking-glass for the child's grave, 
among them. The old lady waded into the 
water, and pushed us off with great energy and 
strong ejaculations. 

As we approached Port Angeles, we had a 
fine view of the Olympio Range of mountains, 
— shining peaks of silver in clear outline ; later, 
only dark points emerging from seas of yellow 
light. Little clouds were drawn towards them, 
and seemed like birds hovering over them, some- 
times lighting, or sailing slowly off. 

Ediz Hook Light, Sept. 23, 1SG5. 

This light-house is at the end of a long, nar- 
row sand-spit, known by the unpoetical name 
of Ediz Hook, which runs out for three miles 
into the Straits of Fuca, in a graceful curve, 



MRS. S. AND HER CHILDREN. 35 

forming the bay of Port Angeles. Outside are 
the roaring surf and heavy swell of the sea; 
inside that slender arm, a safe shelter. 

In a desolate little house near by, lives Mrs. 
S., whose husband was recently lost at sea. 
She is a woman who awakens my deepest won- 
der, from her being so able to dispense with all 
that most women depend on. She prefers still 
to live here (her husband's father keeps the 
light), and finds her company in her great or- 
gan. One of the last things her husband did 
was to order it for her, and it arrived after his 
death. I think the sailors must hear it as they 
pass the light, and wonder where the beautiful 
music comes from. There is something very 
soft and sweet in her voice and touch. 

Sometimes I see the four children out in the 
boat. The little girls are only four and six 
years old, yet they handle the oars with ease. 
As I look at their bare bright heads in the sun- 
shine, they seem as pretty as pond-lilies. I 
feel as if they were as safe, they are so used to 
the water. 

Port Angeles, Oct. 1, 1865. 

Port Angeles has been the scene of a grand 
ceremony, — the marriage of Yeomans's daugh- 
ter to the son of a Makah chief. Many of the 
Makah tribe attended it. They came in a fleet 



36 GRAND INDIAN WEDDING. 

of fifty canoes, — large, handsome boats, their 
high pointed beaks painted and carved, and 
decorated with gay colors. The chiefs had 
eagle-feathers on their heads, great feather-fans 
in their hands, and were dressed in black bear- 
skins. Our Flat-heads in their blankets looked 
quite tame in contrast with them. They ap- 
proached the shore slowly, standing in the 
canoes. When they reached the landing in 
front of Yeomans's ranch, the congratulations 
began, with wild gesticulations, leapings, and 
contortions. They were tall, savage-looking 
men. Some of them had rings in their noses ; 
and all had a much more primitive, uncivilized 
look, than our Indians on the Sound. I could 
hardly believe that the gentlemanly old Yeo- 
mans would deliver up his pretty daughter to 
the barbarians that came to claim her, and 
looked to see some one step forward and forbid 
the banns; but the ceremony proceeded as if 
every thing were satisfactory. There may be 
more of the true old Indian in him than I 
imagined; or perhaps this is a political move- 
ment to consolidate the friendship of the tribes. 
When they landed, they formed a procession, 
bearing a hundred new blankets, red and white, 
as a potlach to the tribe. They brought also 
some of the much-prized blue blankets, reserved 
for special ceremonies and the use of chiefs. 



CHOWS AND INDIANS. 37 

What occurred inside the lodge, we could not 
tell; but were quite touched at seeing Yeomans's 
son take the flag from his dead sister's grave, 
and plant it on the beach at high-water mark, 
as if it were a kind of participation, on the part 
of the dead girl, in the joy of the occasion. 

Oct. 5, 1865. 
Flocks of crows hover continually about the 
Indian villages. The most proverbially suspi- 
cious of all birds is here familiar and confiding. 
The Indian exercises superstitious care over 
them, but whether from love or fear we could 
never discover. It is very difficult to find out 
what an Indian believes. We have sometimes 
heard that they consider the crows their ances 
tors. It is a curious fact, that the Indians, in 
talking, make so much use of the palate, — hi 
and other guttural sounds occurring so often, 
— and that the crow, in his deep " caw, caw," 
uses the same organ. It may be significant of 
some psychological relationship between them. 



III. 



Indian Chief Seattle. — Frogs and Indians. — Spring Flow- 
ers and Birds. — The Red Tamdhnous. — The little Pend 
d'Oreille. — Indian Legend. — From Seattle to Fort Col- 
ville. — Crossing the Columbia River Bar. — The River and 
its Surroundings. — Its Former Magnitude. — The Grande 
Coule'e. — Early Explorers, Heceta, Meares, Vancouver, 
Grey. — Curious Burial-place. — Chinese Miners. — Uma- 
tilla. — Walla Walla. — Sage-brush and^ Bunch-grass. — 
Flowers in the Desert. — "Stick" Indians. — Klickatats. 
— Spokane Indian. — Snakes. — Dead Chiefs. — A Kamas 
Field. — Basaltic Rocks. 

Seattle, Washington Territory, 
Nov. 5, 1865. 

"TTTE saw here a very dignified Indian, old 
V V and poor, but with something about him 
that led us to suspect that he was a chief. We 
found, upon inquiry, that it was Seattle, the old 
chief for whom the town was named, and the 
head of all the tribes on the Sound. He had 
with him a little brown sprite, that seemed an 
embodiment of the wind, — such a swift, elastic 
little creature, — his great-grandson, with no 
clothes about him, though it was a cold Novem- 
ber day. To him, motion seemed as natural as 
rest. 

38 



FROGS AND INDIANS. 39 

Here we first saw Mount Rainier. It was 
called by the Indians Tacoma (The nourishing 
breast). It is also claimed that the true In- 
dian name is Tahoma (Almost to heaven). It 
stands alone, nearly as high as Mont Blanc, 
triple-pointed, and covered with snow, most 
grand and inaccessible-looking. 

We have a great laurel-tree beside our house. 
It looks so Southern, it is strange to see it 
among the firs. It has a dark outer bark, and 
a soft inner skin ; both of which are stripped 
away by the tree in growing, and the trunk and 
branches are left bare and flesh-colored. It has 
glossy evergreen leaves, and bright red berries, 
that look very cheerful in contrast with the 
snow. 

April 6, 1866. 

The frogs have begun to sing in the marsh, 
and the Indians in their camps. How well 
their voices chime together ! All the bright 
autumn days, we used to listen to the Indians 
at sunset ; but after that, we heard no sound of 
them for several months. They sympathize too 
much with Nature to sing in the winter. Now 
the warm, soft air inspires them anew. All 
through the cold and rainy months, as I looked 
out from my window, there was always the 
little black figure in the canoe, as free and as 



40 SPRING FLOWERS AND BIRDS. 

unembarrassed by any superfluities as the birds 
that circled around it. It seemed a mistake, 
when the most severe weather came, for them 
to have made no preparation whatever to meet 
it. It drove the women into our houses, with 
their little bundles of " fire-sticks " (pitch-wood) 
to sell. I offered one of them a pair of shoes ; 
but she pointed to the snow, and said it was 
"hot," and that it would make her feet too cold 
to wear shoes. 

We were told, before we came here, that this 
climate was like that of Asia; and now an Asian 
flower has come to confirm it. The marshes are 
all gay with it : it is the golden club. The bot- 
any calls it the Orontium, because it grows on 
the banks of the Orontes ; and it is very Asian- 
looking. It has a great wrapper, like the rich 
yellow silk in which the Japanese brought their 
presents to President Lincoln. It is a relation 
to the calla-lily, but is larger. 

The very last day of winter, as if they could 
not possibly wait a day longer, great flocks of 
meadow-larks came, and settled down on the 
field next to us. They are about as large as 
robins, and have a braided work of black-and- 
gold to trim off their wings, and a broad black 
collar on their orange breasts. They appear to 
have a very agreeable consciousness of being in 



THE RED TAMAHNOUS. 41 

the finest possible condition. The clear old rob- 
ins look rather faded beside them. With them 
came the crimson-headed linnets. In trying to 
identify these little birds from our books, I found 
that great confusion had prevailed in regard to 
them, because their nuptial plumage differs so 
much from their ordinary dress. These darlings 
blushed all over with life and joy, which told 
me their secret. 

April 30, 1866. 

In the winter we were told, that, when the 
spring came fully on, the Indians would have 
the "Red Tamdhnous" which means "love." A 
little, gray old woman appeared yesterday morn- 
ing at our door, with her cheeks all aglow, as if 
her young blood had returned. Besides the 
vermilion lavishly displayed on her face, the 
crease at the parting of her hair was painted 
the same color. Every article of clothing she 
had on was bright and new. I looked out, and 
saw that no Indian had on any thing but red. 
Even old blind Charley, whom we had never 
seen in any thing but a black blanket, appeared 
in a new one of scarlet. But I was most 
touched by the change in this woman, because 
she is, I suppose, the oldest creature that I ever 
looked at. Nothing but a primeval rock ever 
seemed to me so old; and when we had seen 



42 THE LITTLE PEND & OREILLE. 

her before, she was like a mummy generally 
in her clothing. These most ancient creatures 
have their little stiff legs covered with a kind 
of blue cloth, sewed close round them, just like 
the mummy-wrappings I have seen at Barnum's 
Museum. She has more vivacity and animation 
than any one else I ever saw. If anybody has 
a right to bright cheeks, she has. I like the 
Indians' painting themselves, for in them it is 
quite a different thing from what it is in fashion- 
able ladies. They do it to show how they feel, 
not commonly expressing their emotions in 
words. 

This woman, who is a Pend d'Oreille, has the 
most extraordinary power of modulation in her 
voice. The Indians, by prolonging the sound 
of words, add to their force, and vary their 
meaning ; so that the same word signifies more 
or less, according as it is spoken quickly or 
slowly. She has such a searching voice, espe- 
cially when she is attempting to convict me of 
any subterfuge or evasion, that I have to yield 
to her at once. The Indians have no word, as 
far as I can learn, for " busy." So, when I can- 
not entertain her, I have to make the nearest 
approach I can to the truth, and tell her I am 
sick, or something of that kind ; but nothing 
avails, with her, short of the absolute truth. 



AN INDIAN LEGEND. 43 

She is so very fantastic and entertaining, that 
I should cultivate her acquaintance more, if it 
were not for this deficiency in the language, 
which makes it impossible to convey the idea 
to her when I want to get rid of her. As old 
as she is, she still carries home the great sacks 
of flour — a hundred pounds — on her back, 
superintends the salmon-fishery for the family, 
takes care of the tenas men (children), and 
looks after affairs in general. 

Mat 10, 1866. 

We walked out to Lake Union, and found an 
Indian and his wife living in a tree. The most 
primitive of the Indians, the old gray ones, who 
look the most interesting, do not commonly 
speak the Chinook at all, or have any inter- 
course with the whites. On the way there, we 
found the peculiar rose that grows only on the 
borders of the fir-forest, the wild white honey- 
suckle, and the glossy kinni-hinniek — the Indian 
tobacco. 

We saw a nest built on the edge of the lake, 
rising and falling with the water, but kept in 
place by the stalks of shrubs about it. A great 
brown bird, with spotted breast, rose from it. 
I recognized it as the dabchick. The Indians 
say that this bird was once a human being, wife 
to an Indian with whom she quarrelled. He 



44 FROM SEATTLE TO FORT COLVILLE. 

was transformed to the great blue heron, and 
stalks about the marshes. With the remnant 
of her woman's skill, she makes these curious 
nests, in sheltered nooks, on the edges of lakes. 
She dived below the water, and we peeped in 
at her babies. Their floating nest was over- 
hung by white spirea. They had silver breasts, 
and pale blue bills. I wondered that their little 
bleating cry did not call her back ; but, though 
below the water, she seemed to know that we 
were near, and as long as we lingered about she 
would not return. 

We are going on a long journey to the north, 
part of it over a desert table-land, where for 
four days there will be no house, — a part of the 
country frequented by the Snake River Indians 
and the Nez Perces, who are inclined to be 
hostile. It is near the territory of the Pend 
d'Oreilles. I have seen one of them, with a 
pretty, graceful ornament in her ear. 

Fort Colville, Washington Territory, 
June 8, 1866. 

We travelled by steamer from Seattle to Port- 
land, thence by a succession of steamers as far 
as Wallulla. We then took the stage for Walla 
Walla, at which point public accommodation 
for travel ceases. We stopped there two or 



CROSSING THE COLUMBIA RIVER BAR. 45 

three days, seeking a conveyance across the 
country to this point ; and finally secured a 
wagoner, who agreed to transport us and our 
luo'gao-e for a hundred dollars, the distance 
being two hundred miles. 

The most interesting part of the journey was 
the passage of the Columbia. The bar at the 
mouth of the river is a great hinderance to its 
free navigation; and vessels are often detained 
for days, and even weeks, waiting for a favorable 
opportunity to cross. We waited five days out- 
side in the fog, hearing all the time the deep, 
solemn warning of the breakers, to keep off. 
Our steadfast captain, as long as he could see 
nothing, refused to go on, knowing well the risk, 
though he sent the ship's boats out at times to 
try to get his bearings. In all that time, the fog 
never once lifted so that he could get the hori- 
zon-line. At the end of the fifth day, he en- 
tered in triumph, with a clear view of the river, 
the grandest sight I have ever seen. The pas- 
sengers seemed hardly to dare to breathe till we 
were over the bar. Some of them had witnessed 
a frightful wreck there a few years before, when, 
after a similar waiting in the fog for nearly a 
week, a vessel attempted to enter the river, and 
struck on the bar. She was seen for two days 
from Astoria, but the water was so rough that 



46 THE RIVER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 

no life-boat could reach ller. The passengers 
embarked on rafts, but were swept off by the 
sea. 

As we passed into the river, I sat on deck, 
looking about. All at once I felt a heavy 
thump on my back, and a wave broke over my 
head, — a pretty rough greeting from the sea. 
It seems that we slightly "grounded, but were 
off in an instant. 

I had long looked forward to the wonderful 
experience of seeing this immense river, seven 
miles broad, rolling seaward, and the great line 
of breakers at the bar ; but no one can realize, 
without actually seeing it, how much its gran- 
deur is enhanced by the surroundings of inter- 
minable forest, and the magnificence of its 
snow-mountains. The character of the river 
itself is in accordance with every thing about 
it, especially where it breaks through the Cas- 
cade Mountains in four miles of rapids ; and 
still higher up, shut between basaltic walls, 
rushes with deafening roar through the narrow 
passage of the Dalles, where it is compressed 
into one-eighth of its width. . For a long time 
I could not receive any other sensation, nor 
admit any other thought, but of its terrific 
strength. The Indians say that in former times 
the river flowed smoothly where are now the 



ITS FORMER MAGNITUDE. 47 

whirling rapids of tlie Cascades, but that a 
land-slide from the banks dammed up the 
stream, and produced this great change. How 
many generations have repeated the account of 
this wonderful occurrence, from one to another, 
to bring it down to our times ! This is now 
accepted by scientific men as undoubtedly the 
fact. 

It is bard to conceive the idea of the geolo- 
gists, that this is only the remnant of a vastly 
greater Columbia, that formerly occupied not 
only its present bed, but other channels, now 
abandoned, including the Grande Coulee, be- 
tween whose immense walls it poured a current 
ten miles broad at the mouth; and that the 
water was at some time one or two thousand 
feet above the present level of the river, as 
shown by the terraces along its banks, and frag- 
ments of drift caught in fissures of the rock. 
The Grande Coulee is like an immense roofless 
rain, extending north and south for fifty miles. 
Strange forms of rock are scattered over the 
great bare plain. To the Indians, it is the 
home of evil spirits. They say there are rum- 
blings in the earth, and that the rocks are hot, 
and smoke. Thunder and lightning, so rare 
elsewhere on the western coast, are here more 
common. The evidences of volcanic action are 



48 EARLY EXPLORERS. 

everywhere apparent, — in the huge masses and 
curious columns of basaltic and trap-rock, the 
lava-beds through which the rivers have found 
their way, and the powdery alkaline soil. The 
marks of. glaciers are also as distinct in the 
bowlders, and the scooping-out of the beds of 
lakes. The gravelly prairies between the Co- 
lumbia and Puget Sound, and the Snoqualinie, 
Steilaguamish, and other flats, show that the 
Sound was formerly of much more extensive 
proportions than at present. 

The Columbia was first discovered on the 
15th of August, 1775, by Bruno Heceta, a 
Spanish explorer, who found an opening in the 
coast, from which rushed so strong a current as 
to prevent his entering. He concluded that 
it was the mouth of some great river, or possi- 
bbv the Straits of Fuca, which might have been 
erroneously marked on his chart. As this was 
the anniversary of the Assumption of the Virgin 
Mary, he named the opening Unsenada de Asun- 
cion (Assumption Inlet) ; and it was afterwards 
called, in the charts published in Mexico, En&e- 
nada de Heceta, and Rio de San Roque. He 
gave to the point on the north side the name of 
Cape San Roque; and, to that on the south, 
Cape Frondoso (Leafy Cape). 

Meares, in 1788, gave the name of Cape Dis- 



EARLY EXPLORERS. 49 

appointment to the northern point, owing to 
his not being able to make the entrance of the 
river, and the month he called Deception Bay, 
and asserted that there was no such river as the 
St. Roc, as laid down in the Spanish charts. 

Vancouver also, when exploring the Pacific 
coast in 1792, passed by this great stream, 
without suspecting that there was a river of 
any importance there. He noticed the line of 
breakers, and concluded, that, if there was any 
river, it must be unnavigable, from shoals and 
reefs. He had made up his mind, that all 
the streams flowing into the Pacific between the 
fortieth and forty-eighth parallels of latitude 
were mere brooks, insufficient for vessels to 
navigate, and not worthy his attention. 

Capt. Grey, who reached the place shortly 
after, with keener observation and deeper in- 
sight, saw the indications of a great river there, 
and after lying outside for nine days, waiting a 
favorable opportunity to enter, succeeded in 
doing so on the 11th of May, 1792, being the 
first to accomplish that feat, and explored the 
lower portion of it. He gave to the river and 
to the southern point the names they now bear. 

Vancouver failed in the same way to discover 
the Fraser, the great river of British Columbia, 
although he actually entered the delta of the 



50 EARLY EXPLORERS. 

river, and sailed about among the sand-banks, 
naming one of them Sturgeon Bank; while 
the Spanish explorers, who were there about the 
same time, recognized the fact of its existence 
far out at sea, in the irregular currents, the 
sand-banks, the drift of trees and logs, and also 
in the depression in the Cascade Mountains, 
which marks its channel. 

In 1805 Lewis and Clarke, who reached the 
mouth of the Columbia that year, found that 
the Indians called the river " Shocatilcum " 
(friendly water). 

Tourists have not yet discovered what a 
wonderful country this is for sight-seeing, for- 
tunately for us. On our passage up the Colum- 
bia, after leaving Portland, we sat for two or 
three days, almost alone, on the deck of the 
steamer, with nothing to break the silence but 
the deep breathing of the boat, which seemed 
like its own appreciation of it ; and sailed past 
the great promontories, some of them a thou- 
sand feet high, and watched the slender silver 
streams that fall from the rocks, and felt that 
we were in a new world, — new to us, but older 
and grander than any thing we had ever seen. 

We were shown a high, isolated rock, rising 
far above the water, on which was a scaffolding, 
where, for many generations, the Indians had 



CURIOUS BURIAL-PLACE. 51 

deposited their dead. They were wrapped in 
skins, tied with cords of grass and bark, and 
laid on mats. Their most precious possessions 
were placed beside them, first made unservice- 
able for the living, to secure their remaining 
undisturbed. The bodies were always laid with 
the head toward the west, because the memaloose 
illahie (land of the dead) lay that way. 

In the instincts of children and of uncivilized 
people, there seems something to trust. This 
idea of Heaven's lying toward the west appears 
to have been held by the New-England Indians 
also, and is expressed in Whittier's lines, — 

" O mighty Sowanna! 
Thy gateways unfold, 
From thy wigwam of sunset 
Lift curtains of gold ! 
Take home the poor spirit whose journey is o'er — 
Mat wonck kunna-monee ! We see thee no more ! " 

The Chinese have also the " peaceful land in 
the west," lying far beyond the visible universe. 

Farther up the river, we passed some aban- 
doned diggings, where little colonies of patient, 
toilsome Chinamen had established themselves, 
and were washing and sifting the earth discarded 
by previous miners ; making, we were told, on 
the average, two or three cents to the pan. The 



52 UMATILLA. — WALLA WALLA. 

Chinaman regularly pays, as a foreigner (and is 
almost the only foreigner who does so), his min- 
ing-license tax to the State. He never seeks to 
interfere with rich claims, and patiently sub- 
mits to being driven away from any neglected 
spot he may have chosen if a white man takes 
a fancy to it. 

We stopped one night at Umatilla City, a 
cheerless little settlement at the junction of the 
Umatilla River with the Columbia, in the midst 
of a bleak, dreary waste of sand and sage-brush, 
without a sign of a tree in any direction, a 
perfect whirlwind blowing all the time. What 
could induce people to live there, I could not 
imagine. 

We stopped a day or two at Walla Walla, 
where one of the early forts was established; 
the post having been transferred from Wallula, 
where it was called Fort "Nez Perces," from 
the Indians in that vicinity, who wore in their 
noses a small white shell, like the flake of an 
anchor. 

The journey from Walla Walla to Fort Col- 
ville occupied eleven days and nights, during 
which time we did not take a meal in a house, 
nor sleep in a bed. It was cold, rainy, and 
windy, a good deal of the time, but Ave enjoyed 
it notwithstanding. To wake up in the clear 



SAGE-BRUSH AND BUNCH-GRASS. 53 

air, with the bright sky above us, when it was 
pleasant ; and to reach at night the little oases 
of willows and birches and running streams 
where we camped, — was enough to repay us 
for a good deal of discomfort. At one of the 
camping-grounds, — Cow Creek, — a beautiful 
bird sang all night ; it sounded like bubbling 
water. 

For several days we saw only great sleepy- 
looking hills, stretching in endless succession, 
as far as the horizon extended, from morning 
till night, as if a billowy ocean had been sud- 
denly transfixed in the midst of its motion. 
They have only thin vegetation on them, — not 
enough to disturb or conceal the beautiful forms, 
the curves which the waves leave on the hills 
they deposit. Their colors are very subdued, — 
pale salmon from the dead grass, or light green 
like a thin veil, with the red earth showing 
dimly through. There is no change in looking 
at them, but from light to shadow, as the clouds 
move over them. 

We travelled, for a long distance, over sage- 
brush and alkali plains. In this part of the 
country, sage-brush is a synonym for any thing 
that is worthless. We found the little woody 
twigs of it available for our camping-fires ; but 
its amazing toughness reminded me of a story 



54 SAGE-BRUSH AND BUNCH-GRASS. 

told by Mr. Boiler, in his book "Among the 
Indians." He was taking a band of mustang 
half-breeds from California to Montana, when, 
to his surprise, one of the mares presented him 
with a foal. Supposing it would be impossible 
for it to keep up with the party, he took out his 
revolver to shoot it. Twice he raised it, but the 
little fellow trotted along so cheerily that his 
heart failed him, and he returned it to the hol- 
ster. The colt swam creeks breast-high for the 
horses, and travelled on with sublime indiffer- 
ence to every thing but the gratification of its 
keen little appetite. He resolved to take it 
through, thinking it would never do to destroy 
an animal of so much pluck, and named it 
" Sage-brush." It swam every stream, flinched 
from nothing, and arrived in good order in 
Montana, a distance of three hundred miles, 
having travelled every day from the time it was 
half an hour old. Its name was most appropri- 
ate, as an illustration of the character of the 
plant. 

Intermixed with the wastes of sage-brush 
were patches • of bunch-grass. The horses 
sniffed it with delight as luxuriant pasturage. 
It is curious to see how nature here acts in the 
interest of civilization. The old settlers told 
us that many acres formerly covered with sage- 



FLO WEES IN THE DESERT. 55 

brush were now all bunch-grass. It is a pecul- 
iarity of the sage-brush, that fire will not 
spread in it. The bush which is fired will 
burn to the ground, but the next will not catch 
from it. The grass steals in among the sage- 
brush ; and, when that is burned, it carries the 
fire from one bush to another. Although the 
grass itself is consumed, the roots strike deep ; 
and it springs up anew, overrunning the dead 
sage-brush. > 

Then we came to the most barren country I 
ever saw, — nothing but broken, rusty, worm- 
eaten looking rocks, where the rattlesnakes 
live. But here grew the most beautiful flower, 
peach-blossom color. It just thrust its head 
out of the earth, and the long pink buds 
stretched themselves out over the dingy bits 
of rock ; and that was all there was of it. We 
took some of the roots, which are bulbous, and 
shall try to furnish them with sufficient hard- 
ships to make them grow. 

One night, while in this region, we camped 
on a hill where the cayotes came up and cried 
round us, which made it seem quite wild. 

Wherever there was any soil, there was 
another little plant that was very prett}^ to 
notice, both for itself, and because of its adap- 
tation to the climate in the dry season. It was 



56 "STICK" INDIANS. 

coated with a delicate fur ; and long after the 
hot sun was up, and when every thing else was 
dry, great diamonds of dew glistened in its 
soft hair. We saw a great many plants of the 
lupine family, in every variety of shade, from 
crimson, blue, and purple, to white. 

On the last days we had all the time before 
us dark mountains, with snow on their summits, 
and troops of trees on their sides, and ravines 
with sun-lighted mists travelling through them. 
It was like getting into an inhabited country, 
to reach the trees again : they were "almost 
like human beings, after what we had seen. 
The Spokane River divides the great treeless 
plain on the south from the timbered moun- 
tainous country to the north. 

During this journey, we came upon various 
little bands of Indians, of different tribes. We 
noticed the superiority of the " stick " Indians 
(those who live in the woods) over those who 
live by the sea. The former have herds of 
horses, and hunt for their living. The Indians 
who live by fishing are of tamer natures, poor 
and degraded, compared to those of the interior. 

We saw at Walla Walla some of the Klick- 
atats, from the mountains. They were very 
bright and animated in their appearance, and 
wore fringed dresses and ornamented leggings, 



SPOKANE INDIAN. 57 

and moccasins of buffalo-skin. They were 
mounted upon fancy-colored and spotted horses, 
which they prize above all others. They pre- 
sented such a striking contrast to the lazy 
Clalams on the Sound, — who used to say to 
us in reply to our inquiries as- to their occupa- 
tions and designs, " Cultus nannitsh, cultus mit- 
liglit" (look about and do nothing), as if that 
were their whole business all day long, — that I 
was reminded of what some of the early explor- 
ers said, that no two nations of Europe differed 
more widely from each other than the different 
tribes of Indians. 

One day we met an Spokane Indian, of very 
striking appearance, with a face like Dante's, but 
with a happier expression. He was most becom- 
ingly clothed in white blankets, compactly folded 
about him, with two or three narrow red stripes 
across his bonnet of the same material, which had 
a red peaked border, completely encircling the 
face, like an Irishwoman's night-cap, or rather 
day-cap, but much more picturesque. He was 
scouring the hills and plains between the Snake 
and Spokane Rivers, mounted on a gay little 
pony, in search of stolen horses. Upon being 
questioned as to his abiding-place, he informed 
us that he did not live anywhere. 

We saw some representatives of another tribe 



58 SNAKE INDIANS. 

of Indians, the Snakes. They call themselves 
Shoshones, which means only "inland Indians." 
The white people called them Snakes, probably 
because of their marvellous power of eluding 
pursuit, by crawling off in the long grass, or 
diving in the water. They seemed more wild 
and agile than any we had seen. The Snakes 
were a very numerous tribe when the traders 
first came among them. When questioned as 
to their number, by the agents of " The Great 
White Chief," they said, " It is the same as the 
stars in the sky." They were a proud, inde- 
pendent people, living mostly on the plains, 
hunting the buffalo. They kept no canoes; 
depending only on temporary rafts of bulrushes 
or willows, if not convenient to ford or swim 
across the streams. They were the only Indians 
of this part of the country who had any knowl- 
edge of working in clay, — their necessities 
obliging them to make rude jugs in which to 
carry water across the bare plains. The moun- 
tain Snakes were outlaws, enemies to all other 
tribes. The}'' lived in bands, in rocky caverns ; 
and were said to have a wonderful power of 
imitating all sounds of nature, from the singing 
of birds to the howling of wolves, — by this 
means diverting attention from themselves, and 
escaping detection in their roving, predatory 
expeditions. 



DEAD CHIEFS. 59 

When we readied the ferry on the Snake 
River, we saw some Indians swimming their 
horses across. They were a hunting-party of 
Spokanes and Nez Perces. Strapped on to one 
of the horses, with a roll of blankets, was a Nez 
Perces baby. This infant, though apparently 
not over a year and a half old, sat erect, grasp- 
ing the reins, with as spirited and fearless a 
look as an old warrior's. 

At one of the portages, we saw some graves 
of chiefs ; the bodies carefully laid in east-and- 
west lines, and the opening of the lodge built 
over them was toward the sunrise. On a frame 
near the lodge were stretched the hides of their 
horses, sacrificed to accompany them to another 
world. The missionaries congratulate them- 
selves that these barbarous ceremonies are no 
longer observed, that the Indian is weaned from 
his idea of the happy hunting-ground, and the 
sacrilegious thought of ever meeting his horse 
again is eradicated from his mind. I thought 
with satisfaction that the missionary really 
knows no more about the future than the In- 
dian, who seems ill adapted to the conventional 
idea of heaven. For my part, I prefer to think 
of him, in the unknown future, as retaining 
something of his earthly wildness and freedom, 
rather than as a white-robed saint, singing 
psalms, and playing on a harp. 



60 A KAMAS FIELD. 

Between the Snake and the Spokane are 
several beautiful lakes. We met a hunter com- 
ing from one of them, who had shot a white 
swan. He said he found it circling round and 
round its dead mate, in so much distress that 
he thought it was a kindness to kill it. 

We passed two great smoking mounds, and, 
on alighting to investigate, found that we were 
in the midst of a kamas-field, where a great 
many Indian women and children were busy 
digging the root, and roasting it in the earth. 

Some of the old women wore the fringed 
skirt, made of cloth spun and woven from the 
soft inner bark of the young cedar, which they 
used to wear before blankets were introduced. 

The Indians eat other roots beside the kamas, 
but that is the one on which they chiefly de- 
pend. As soon as the snow is off the ground, 
they begin to search for a little bulbous root 
they call the pohpoh. It looks like a small 
onion, and has a dry, spicy taste. In May they 
get the spatlam, or bitter-root. This is a deli- 
cate white root, that dissolves in boiling, and 
forms a bitter jelly. The Bitter Root River and 
Mountains get their name from this plant. In 
June comes the kamas. It looks like a little 
hyacinth-bulb, and when roasted is as nice as a 
chestnut. We have seen it in blossom, when 



INDIAN FOOD. 61 

its pale-blue flowers covered the fields so closely 
that, at a little distance, we took it for a lake. 
One of the women, seeing our curiosity as we 
watched them, drew some of the bulbs out of 
the earth ovens, and handed them to us. As 
we tasted them, they explained that they were 
not ready to eat; that it would take two or 
three days to roast them sufficiently. This they 
live upon for two or three months ; with the 
salmon, it is their chief article of food. The 
women stop at the kamas-grounds, while the 
men go to the fishing-stations. 

In August they gather the choke-berry and 
service-berry, to dry for the winter. When 
they are reduced to great extremity for food, 
they sometimes boil and eat the moss and 
lichens on the trees, which the deer eats. Most 
of the work of digging the roots, and picking 
the berries, falls upon the women. On this 
account, a Spokane man in marrying joins the 
tribe of his wife, instead of her joining his 
tribe ; thinking, if he takes her away from the 
places where she has been accustomed to find 
her roots and berries, she may not succeed, in a 
new place, in discovering them. 

We saw, in the vicinity of the Pelouse River, 
some remarkable basaltic rocks, that looked 
like buildings with columns and turrets and 



62 BASALTIC ROCKS. 

bastions. Some of them were like my idea of 
the great kings' tombs of the Egyptians. The 
colors on them were often very Egyptian-like, 
— bright sulphur-yellow, and brown, and some- 
times orange and dark red, — incrustations of 
lichen and weather-staining. We saw, also, 
walls of pentagonal columns of rock, packed 
closely together. Where the Pelouse enters the 
Snake River, are immense ledges of square 
blocks. When we camped there, and I lay 
down beneath them at night, " Swedish trappa, 
a stair," from the geological text-book, was 
always running in my mind, — this black trap- 
rock made such great steps that led up towards 
the sky. 

We have seen here a splendid specimen of 
gold, which is to be sent to the Exposition at 
Paris. It is granulated, and sparkles as I never 
saw gold before. Some one suggests that a thin 
film of quartz may be crystallized over it. 

Next week we hope to go up within sight 
of the" whirlpools of Death's Rapids, a long 
distance above here, on the Columbia River. 
These rapids are so named on account of the 
number of persons who have been lost in at- 
tempting to navigate them. Their names are 
cut into the rocks at the side of the passage ; 
their bodies have never been found. 



IV. 



Two Hundred Miles on the Upper Columbia. — Steamer 
" Forty-nine."— Navigation in a Canon. — Pend d'Oreille 
River and Lake. — Rock Paintings. — Tributaries of the 
Upper Columbia. — Arrow Lakes. — Kettle Falls. — Sal- 
mon-catching. — Salmon-dance. — Goose-dance. 

Fort Colville, July 20, 1866. 

"TTTE have just returned from a trip on the 
V V Columbia River, extending two hundred 
miles north into British Columbia, on the little 
steamer built in this vicinity for the purpose of 
carrying passengers and supplies to the Big 
Bend and other mines in the upper country. 
We did not get to the " Rapids of the Dead." 
The boat, this time, did not complete her ordi- 
nary trip. Some of the passengers came to the 
conclusion that the river was never intended to 
be navigated in places she attempted to run 
through. It is a very adventurous boat, called 
the "Forty-nine," being the first to cross that 
parallel, — the line separating Washington Ter- 
ritory from British Columbia. The more oppo- 
sition she meets with, and the more predictions 

63 



64 STEAMER "FORTY-NINE." 

there are against her success, the more resolute 
she is to go through ; on which account, we 
were kept three weeks on the way, the ordinary 
length of the passage being four days. I was 
surprised, when we came to the first of what 
was called the " bad water," to see the boat aim 
directly for it. It was much better, the captain 
said, to go " head on," than to run the risk of 
being carried in by an eddy. I never saw any 
river with such a tendency to whirl and fling 
itself about as the Upper Columbia has. It 
is all eddies, in places where there is the least 
shadow of a reason for it, and even where there 
is not ; influenced, I suppose, by the adjoining 
waters. Some of these whirl-pits are ten or fif- 
teen feet deep, measured by the trees that are 
sucked down into them. 

The most remarkable part . of the river is 
where it is compressed to one-sixth of its width, 
in passing through a mountain gorge three- 
quarters of a mile long. The current is so 
strong there, that it takes from four to six 
hours for the steamer to struggle up against it, 
and only one minute to come down. The men 
who have passed down through it, in small 
boats, say that it is as if they were shot from 
the mouth of a cannon. 

When we reached this canon, our real diffi- 



NAVIGATION IN A CANON. 65 

culties began. We attempted to enter it in 
the afternoon, bnt met with an accident which 
delayed us until the next morning. Meanwhile 
the river began to rise. It goes up very rap- 
idly, fifty, sixty, I believe even seventy, feet, 
sometimes. We waited twelve days in the 
woods for it to subside. The captain cut us a 
trail with his axe; and we sat and looked at the 
great snow-fields up on the mountains, so bril- 
liant that the whitest clouds looked dark beside 
them. The magnificence of the scenery made 
every one an artist, from the captain to the 
cook, who produced a very beautiful drawing 
of three snow-covered peaks, which he called 
"The Three Sisters." 

Everybody grew very impatient ; and at 
length, one night, the captain said he would 
try it the next morning, although he had never 
before been up when the water was so high. A 
heavy rain came on, lasting all night, so that 
it seemed rather desperate to attempt going 
through, if the river was too high the night 
before ; and I could hardly believe it, when I 
heard the engineer getting up the steam to 
start. The wildest weather prevailed at this 
time, and on all important occasions. As soon 
as we went on board the boat, in first start- 
ing, a violent thunder-storm came on, lightning, 



66 NAVIGATION IN A CANON. 

hail, and rain ; and a great pine-tree came 
crashing down, and fell across the bow of the 
boat. A similar storm came again the first 
time we tried to enter the canon ; and the drift 
it brought down so interfered with the steer- 
ing, that it led to the accident before men- 
tioned. On this last morning, there were most 
evident signs of disapproval all about us, — 
the sky perfect gloom, and the river contin- 
ually replenishing its resources from the pour- 
ing rain, and strengthening itself against us. 
But we steamed up to the entrance of the 
canon. Then the boat was fastened by three 
lines to the shore, and the men took out a 
cable six hundred feet in length, which they 
carried along the steep, slippery rocks, and 
fastened to a great tree. One of them rolled 
down fifty feet into the water, but was caught 
by his companions before he was whirled away. 
They then returned to the boat, let on all the 
steam, and began to wind up the cable on 
the capstan. With the utmost power of the 
men and steam, it was sometimes impossible to 
see any progress. Finally, however, that line 
was wound up ; and the boat was again secured 
to the bank, and the cable put out the second 
time. This part of the passage was still more 
difficult ; and, after the line was arranged, two 



NAVIGATION IN A CANON. 67 

men were left on shore with grappling-irons 
to keep it off the rocks, — a great, fine-looking 
one, who appeared equal to any emergency, and 
a little, common one, with sandy hair and a 
lobster-colored face and neck. We watched 
them intently ; and, as we drew near, we saw 
that the line had caught on something beneath 
the surface of the water, so that they could 
not extricate it. The little man toiled vigor- 
ously at it, standing in the water nearly up to 
his head ; but appeared to be feebly seconded 
by the big one, who remained on the rocks. It 
seemed as if the line would part from the 
strain, or the boat strike the next moment. 
The mate shouted and gesticulated to them; 
but no voice could be heard above the raging 
water, and they either could not understand 
his motions, or could not do as they were di- 
rected. The boat bore directly down upon 
them. Presently it seemed evident to us that 
the little man must sacrifice himself for the 
steamer; but I did not know how it looked to 
him, — people are all so precious to themselves. 
He stopped a second, then flung back his cap 
and pole, and threw himself under the boiling 
water. Up came the rope to the surface, but 
the man was gone. Instantly after, he scram- 
bled up the bank; and the great magnificent 



68 NAVIGATION IN A CANON. 

man did nothing but clutch him on the back 
when he was safely out. 

We had then wound up about two-thirds of 
the cable. Immediately after, this remarkable 
occurrence took place : The great heavy line 
came wholly up out of the water. A bolt flew 
out of the capstan, which was a signal for the 
men who were at work on it to spring out 
of the way. The captain shouted, "Cut the 
rope ! " but that instant the iron capstan was 
torn out of the deck, and jumped overboard, 
with the cable attached to it. I felt thankful 
for it, for I knew it was the onty thing that 
could put an end to our presumptuous attempt. 
I had felt that this rope would be a great snare 
to us in case of accident. Three of our four 
rudders were broken; but the remaining one 
enabled us to get into an eddy that carried us 
to a little cove, where we stopped to repair 
damages sufficiently to come down the river. 

All day, the rain had never ceased ; and the 
river had seemed to me like some of those 
Greek streams that Homer tells of, which had 
so much personal feeling against individuals. 
I felt as if we were going to be punished for 
an audacious attempt, instead of rewarded for 
what might otherwise have been considered a 
brave one. When the capstan disappeared, it 



ROCK PAINTINGS. 69 

was just as if some great river-god, with a whiff 
of his breath, or a snap of his fingers, had tossed 
it contemptuously aside. So we turned back 
defeated. But there was a great deal to enjoy, 
when we came to think of it afterwards, and 
were safely out of it. We had seen nothing so 
bold and rugged before. An old Scotchman, 
who knows more about it than any one else 
here, had said to us before we started, " That 
British Columbia is such a terrible country, 
very little can ever be known of it." But there 
was a great deal that was- beautiful too. I was 
particularly struck with the manner in which 
the Pend d' Oreille springs into the Columbia. 
Glen Ellis Fall, gliding down in its swiftness* 
always seemed to me more beautiful than almost 
any thing else I ever saw. But this river is 
more demonstrative. It springs up, and falls 
again in showers of spray, and comes with great 
leaps out of the canon, in a way that I cannot 
describe. There is in it more freedom and 
strength and delight than in any thing else I 
ever saw. Far to the south-east, this stream 
widens into Lake Pend d'Oreille. On this lake 
are the wonderful painted rocks, rising far above 
the water, upon which, at the height of several 
hundred feet, are the figures of men and ani- 
mals, which the Indians say are the work of a 



70 TRIBUTARIES OF THE UPPER COLUMBIA. 

race that preceded tliem. They are afraid to 
approach the rocks, lest the waters should rise 
in anger, and ingulf them. There are also 
hieroglyphic figures far up on the rocks of 
Lake Chelan, which is supposed to have once 
been an arm of the Columbia. These paintings 
or picture-writings must have been made when 
the water was so high in the lakes that they 
could be done by men in boats. 

Most of the tributaries of the Upper Colum- 
bia are similar in character to the main stream, 
— wild, unnavigable rivers, flowing through deep 
canons, and full of torrents and rapids. With 
Nature so vigorous and unsubdued about us, 
all conventionalities seemed swept away ; and 
something fresh and strong awoke in us, as if 
it had long slumbered until the presence of 
its kindred in these mountain streams called 
it to consciousness, — something of the force 
and freedom of these wild, tireless Titans, that 
poured down their white floods to the sea. 

Most of these streams rise in lakes, and in 
some part of their course spread again into one 
or more lakes; as, the Arrow Lakes of the Co- 
lumbia, the Flat-head, Kootenay, Pend d'Oreille, 
and Cceur d'Alene, and the beautiful string of 
lakes of the Okinakane, and many others. 

As we passed through the Upper Arrow 



KETTLE FALLS. 71 

Lake and Lower Arrow Lake, which lie in 
British Columbia, we had some splendid views 
of mountain scenery. The Upper Lake is thir- 
ty-three miles long, and three in width, crystal- 
line water, surrounded by snow-covered peaks 
and precipices, and forests of pine and cedar. 
The second is sixteen miles below the first, 
forty-two miles in length, and two and a half 
wide. Innumerable arrows were sticking in 
the crevices of the rocks. Formerly every In- 
dian who passed deposited an arrow, — intend- 
ed probably as an offering to the spirit that 
rules over the chase, just as the Indian medi- 
cine-man, when he gathers his roots, makes an 
offering to the earth. 

The Catholic missionaries were much sur- 
prised to find crosses erected sometimes in 
lonely places, and at first supposed some other 
priests must have preceded them ; but learned 
that they were set up by the Indians, in honor 
of the moon, to induce her to favor their 
nightly expeditions for robbery or the chase. 

July 22, 1866. 

We have been on an excursion to Kettle 
Falls on the Columbia, where the river dashes 
over the huge rocks in a most picturesque way. 
These falls were called La Chaudiere by the 



72 SALMON-CATCHING. 

Canadian voyageurs, because the pool below 
looks like a great boiling caldron. We no- 
ticed that limestone there replaced the black 
basalt, of which we had seen so much, the wa- 
ter falling over a tabular bed of white marble. 

There we saw some Indians engaged in 
spearing salmon, as the fish were attempting 
to leap the falls, in their passage up the stream 
to their breeding-places. They do not always 
succeed in passing the falls at their first leap, 
sometimes falling back two or three times. 
Many of them are dashed on the rocks at the 
Cascades, and at other points where the river 
presents obstacles to their progress. An im- 
mense number become victims to the nets of 
the fishermen, and the traps and spears of the 
Indians ; and those that escape these dangers, 
and reach the upper waters,- are very much 
bruised and battered, — " spent salmon " they 
are called. After their long journey of six or 
seven hundred miles from the sea, it seems as 
if they would be filled with despair at the sight 
of these boiling cataracts. They refuse bait on 
the way, apparently never stopping for food, 
from the time they leave the salt water. Often 
with fins and tails so worn down as to be 
almost useless, their noses worn to the bone, 
their eyes sunken, sometimes wholly extin- 



SALMON-DANCE. 73 

guished, they struggle on to the last gasp, to 
ascend the streams to their sources. In calm 
weather they swim near the surface, and close 
to the shore, to avoid the strong current; and 
they are so possessed with this one purpose, and 
so regardless of every thing about them, that 
the Indians catch hundreds of them by merely 
slipping the gaff-hook under their bodies, and 
lifting them out of the water, — selecting the 
best to preserve for food, and throwing aside 
those that they consider as worthless. These 
pale, emaciated creatures, I looked at with the 
greatest interest. How strong is the impulse 
that carries them through, in spite of these 
almost insurmountable obstacles ! It is beyond 
our knowledge, why, in coming in from the 
sea, they pass certain streams to enter others ; 
but this they are known to do, so perfectly 
do they understand the mysterious direction 
given them. 

The early explorers witnessed many ceremo- 
nies among the Indians not now observed by 
them; as, the salmon-dance, to celebrate the 
taking of the first salmon in the river. When 
the earliest spring salmon was caught in the 
Columbia, the Indians were extremely particu- 
lar in their dealings with it. No white man 
could obtain it at any price, lest, by opening it 



74 GOOSE-DANCE. 

with a knife instead of a stone, he should drive 
all following salmon from the river. Certain 
parts must be eaten with the rising, and others 
with the falling, tide ; and many other minute 
regulations carefully observed. After the sal- 
mon-berry ripened, they relaxed their vigilance, 
feeling that by that time the influx was secure. 
The Gros Ventres celebrated the goose-dance, 
to remind the wild geese, as they left in the 
autumn, that they had had good food all sum- 
mer, and must come back in the spring. This 
dance was performed by women, each one carry- 
ing a bunch of long seed-grass, the favorite food 
of the wild goose. They danced to the sound 
of the drum, circling about with shuffling steps. 



V. 



Old Fort Colville. — Angus McDonald and his Indian Family. 

— Canadian Voyageurs. — Father Joseph. — Hardships of 
the Early Missionaries. — The Cceurs d'Alene and their 
Superstitions. — The Catholic Ladder. — Sisters of Notre 
Dame. — Skill of the Missionaries in instructing the In- 
dians. — Father de Smet and the Blackfeet. — A Native 
Dance. — Spokanes. — Exclusiveness of the Cceurs dAlene. 

— Battle of Four Lakes. — The Yakima Chief and the 
Road-makers. 

Fort Colville, July 25, 1866. 

"TTTE have been making a little visit to 
V\ Old Fort Colville, one of the Hudson 
Bay stations, kept by Angus McDonald, an old 
Scotchman, who has been there for a great 
many years. He is an educated gentleman, of 
a great deal of character and intelligence ; and 
his wife is an Indian woman, who cannot live 
more than half the year in the house, and has 
to wander about, the rest of it, with her tilicums 
(relations and friends). 

It was interesting to see how this cultivated 
man, accustomed to the world as he had been, 
had adapted himself to life in this solitary spot 
on the frontier, with his Indian children. for his 

75 



76 ANGUS MCDONALD. 

only companions. He has about ten. In some 
of them the Scotch blood predominated, but 
in most the Indian blood was more apparent. 
The oldest son, a grown man, was a very dark 
Indian, decorated with wampum. Christine, 
the oldest daughter, resembled her father most. 
She kept house for him, because, as she ex- 
plained to us, her mother could not be much 
in-doors. She spoke, too, of disliking to be 
confined. I asked her where she liked best to 
be; and she said, with the Blackfeet Indians, 
because they had the prettiest dances, and could 
do such beautiful bead-work; and described 
their working on the softened skins of elk, 
deer, and antelope, making dresses for chiefs 
and warriors. We had a sumptuous meal of 
Rocky-Mountain trout, buffalo-tongues, and 
pemmican. Although Christine was, in some 
respects, quite a civilized young lady, she occa- 
sionally betrayed her innocence of convention- 
alities, as when she came and whispered to me, 
before the meal was announced, what the chief 
dishes were to be. She mentioned, as one of 
the delicacies of the Blackfeet, berries boiled in 
buffalo-blood. 

Mr. McDonald told us many stories about 
the Canadian voyageurs employed by the Hud- 
son Bay Company, illustrating their power of 



CAN AD TAN VOYAGEURS. 77 

endurance and their elastic temperament. One 
of their men, he said, was lost for thirty-five 
days in the woods, and finally discovered by 
the Indians, crawling on his hands and feet 
towards a brook, nearly exhausted, but still 
keeping up his courage. He asked us if we 
conld conjecture how he had kept alive all that 
time, with no means whatever, outside of him- 
self, to procure food. He had actually suc- 
ceeded in making a fine net from his own hair, 
with which he caught small fishes, devouring 
them raw, accompanied by a little grass or moss ; 
not daring to eat any roots or berries, lest they 
might be poisonous, as the country was new to 
him. These Canadians are as brown as Indians, 
from their constant exposure to the sun and 
wind, and have adapted themselves completely 
to Indian ways, wearing a blanket capote, leather 
trousers, moccasins, and a fur cap, with a bright 
sash or girdle to hold a knife and a tobacco- 
pouch. Their half-breed children are generally 
excellent canoe-men and hunters, with the vi- 
vacity of the father, and the endurance of the 
mother's race. Marcel Bernier, one of these 
French Canadians, was one of the early settlers 
in the Cowlitz Valley ; and we have travelled 
with him between the Columbia River and 
Puget Sound, and once stopped at his house 



78 FATHER JOSEPH. 

over night. It was quite different from the 
common Indian houses ; having pillow-cases 
trimmed with ruffles and lace, and great bear- 
skin mats on the floor. The baby slept in a 
little hammock swung from the ceiling. The 
family were devoted Catholics, and sung mat- 
ins and vespers, and had pictures and images 
of saints about the room. We were quite im- 
pressed by the advance in civilization which the 
little admixture of French blood had brought. 

Christine took us to see an ancient Indian 
woman, who remembers the country when there 
were no white people in it. She has the fifth 
generation of her children about her. She is 
wholly blind, her eyes mostly closed, only little 
bloodshot traces of them left. She sat serenely 
in the sunshine, hollowing out a little canoe of 
pine-bark for the youngest, two little girls who 
swam in the arm of the river before the tent- 
door. 

We went with Christine also up on the bluff 
to see Father Joseph, a Catholic priest, who 
represented to me a new class of men, whom I 
had known before only in books. His eyes 
were as clear blue as Emerson's ideal ones, that 
tell the truth; and I knew he meant it, when he 
answered a question I asked him, in a way that 
surprised me, and which I should have taken, 



HARDSHIPS OF E-ARLY MISSIONARIES. 79 

in some men, for cant. I asked him if it was 
not ever solitary there ; and he said, " It is 
enough like my own home [Switzerland] for 
that, but all countries are alike to me. We 
have no home here below." For twenty-five 
years he has lived on the top of that hill, with 
only miserable Indians around him, who could 
repay him very little for all his efforts. In the 
Indian war, he was supposed to be so strongly 
on the side of the Indians, that the government 
agent, as I find by the printed report, recom- 
mended his removal ; although he admitted that 
it was hard to say any thing against a man who 
had made such unbounded sacrifices for what 
he considered the good of the Indians. He had 
books in all languages on his shelves, and was 
very intelligent and courteous. 

He described the condition of the country 
when the first little band of Jesuits, of whom 
he was one, entered upon the Oregon mission, 
— Oregon then extending east as far as the 
Rocky Mountains. They had often to travel 
through dark forests, into which the daylight 
never entered, and, axe in hand, make their own 
paths through the wilderness, sometimes crawl- 
ing on all-fours through labyrinths of fallen 
trees, fording rivers where the water reached to 
their shoulders, travelling afterwards in their 



80 COEURS D'ALENE. 

wet clothes, with swollen limbs, and moccasins 
soaked in blood from laceration of their feet by 
the thorns of the prickly pear, and lying down 
at night on their beds of brushwood, wrapped 
in their buffalo-robes. The Indians were full 
of curiosity to know what they were in search 
of, and listened with great interest when they 
attempted to talk with them. The first group 
that Father Joseph gathered about him sat all 
night to hear him, although they had come from 
hard labor of hunting and fishing, and digging 
roots. He said, that, however degraded they 
were, they were all eager to find some power 
superior to man. 

The tribe among whom he first established 
himself — the Coeurs d'Alene — were renowned 
among all the tribes for their belief in sorcery ; 
and he experienced great difficulty in making 
an impression upon them, from the opposition 
of the medicine-men (jugglers). Among this 
tribe he found two relics held in great esteem, 
of which the Indians gave him this account : — 

They said that the first white man they ever 
saw wore a spotted-calico shirt — which to them 
appeared like the small-pox — and a great white 
comforter. They thought the spotted shirt was 
the Great Manitou himself, the master of the 
alarming disease that swept them off in such 



WORSHIP OF MANITOUS. 81 

vast numbers, and that the white comforter 
was the Manitou of the snow ; that, if they 
could only secure and worship them, the small- 
pox would be banished, and abundant snows 
would drive the buffalo down from the moun- 
tains. The white man agreed to give them 
up, receiving in exchange several of their best 
horses; and for many years these two Manitous 
were carried in solemn procession to a hill con- 
secrated to superstitious rites, laid reverently on 
the grass, and the great medicine-pipe (which 
is offered to the earth, the sun, and the water) 
was presented to them ; the whole band singing, 
dancing, and howling around them. 

Father Joseph treated the Indians altogether 
as children, and devised a system of object- 
teaching, making little images representing 
what they were to shun, and what to seek, to 
which he pointed in instructing them. He con- 
sidered it a miracle, that they yielded their 
hearts to his teaching ; but it seemed to me, that 
if the good priest's gentle ways and entire devo- 
tion to their welfare had produced no effect, it 
would have been as contradictory to all the laws 
of nature as any miracle could be. While in- 
structing some savages from Puget Sound, he 
said the idea came into the mind of one of the 
priests, to represent by a ladder, which he made 



82 THE CATHOLIC LADDER. 

on paper, the various truths and mysteries of 
religion, in their chronological order. This 
proved vastly beneficial in instructing them. It 
was called the " Catholic ladder," and dissemi- 
nated widely among the Indians ; their progress 
in religion being measured by their knowledge 
of this ladder. At the same time that he sent 
the ladder among them, he sent also roots and 
seeds and agricultural tools. I could hardly 
repress a smile at seeing that he spoke with the 
same enthusiasm of their success with the beans 
and potatoes, as with the ladder. The truth is, 
that he had deeply at heart the good of these, 
his "wild children of the forest," as he always 
called them. It was quite touching to him, he 
said, to see how ready they were to believe that 
God took charge of earthly things as well as 
of heavenly. 

One of his associates in the early missions 
was a Belgian priest, whose journal he showed 
us. He brought over, to aid in the work, six 
sisters of Notre Dame, in 1844. The vessel 
which brought them to the Pacific coast stopped 
at Valparaiso and Lima, to inquire how to enter 
the Columbia River. Not receiving any satis^ 
factory information, they sailed north till they 
reached the forty -sixth degree of latitude. 
Then they explored for several days, and at 



SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME. 83 

length saw a sail coming out of what appeared 
to be the mouth of a river. They immediately 
sent an officer to find out from this vessel how 
to enter ; but, as he did not return, they were 
obliged to approach alone the " vast and fearful 
mouth of the river," and soon found themselves 
in the terrible southern channel, into which, 
they were assured afterwards, no vessel had ever 
sailed before. The commander of the fort at 
Astoria had endeavored, by hoisting flags, by 
great signal-fires, and guns, to warn them of 
their danger. They saw the signals, but did 
not suspect their intention. They sailed two 
miles amidst fearful breakers. When at length 
they reached stiller water, a canoe approached 
them, containing an American man and some 
Clatsop Indians. The white man told them he 
would have come sooner to their aid, but the 
Indians refused to brave the danger ; and said 
that he expected every moment to see the vessel 
dashed into a thousand pieces. The Indians, 
seeing it ride triumphantly over the dreadful 
bar, considered it under the special guidance 
of the Great Spirit, and greeted it with wild 
screams of delight. This was the introduction 
of the serene sisters to their field of labor. My 
idea of the sisters generally had been of pale, 
sad beingSj whose most appropriate place was 



84 CATHOLIC CEREMONIES. 

by the side of death-beds. These sisters of 
Notre Dame were brisk, energetic women, of 
lively temperaments. Finding the building 
which was preparing for them not yet provided 
with doors and windows, from the scarcity of 
mechanics, they themselves set about planing, 
glazing, and painting, to make every thing 
neat and comfortable. Wilkes, in his account 
of his exploring expedition, speaks regretfully 
of the poor appearance the Protestant missions 
presented, when compared with those of the 
Catholics ; there being among the former an 
unthrifty, dilapidated look, and the Indians he 
saw there appeared to be employed only as 
servants. 

The Catholics took pains to make all their 
ceremonies as imposing as circumstances would 
permit; making free use of musketry, bright 
colors, and singing, — things most attractive to 
an Indian, — remarking often, "Noise is essen- 
tial to the Indian's enjoyment," and, " Without 
singing, the best instruction is of little value." 
They showed the Indians that they regarded 
the comfort and good of their bodies, as well 
as of their souls ; giving them at Easter a great 
feast of potatoes, parsneps, turnips, beets, beans, 
and pease, to impress upon them the advantages 
of civilization, and taking pains that the re- 



THE CHIEF AND HIS PEOPLE. 85 

quirements of religion should not interfere with 
the fishery or the chase. All the good customs 
and practices already established among them, 
they confirmed and approved, and found much 
to sympathize with in the Indians. The suavity 
and dignified simplicity of the chiefs particu- 
larly pleased them, and the relation of the chief 
to the people, — they consulting him in regard 
to every public or private undertaking, as when 
about to take a journey, or when entering upon 
marriage ; he regulating the gathering of roots 
and berries, the hunting and fishing, and the 
division of spoils. The priests said of the 
chief, " He speaks calmly, but never in vain." 
They admired the self-control of the Indians, 
who never showed any impatience when mis- 
fortunes befell them , and said, that, the farther 
they penetrated into the wilderness, the better 
Indians they found. They were especially 
pleased with those about the sources of the 
Columbia, and said of their converts in that 
region, "If it be true that the prayer of him 
who possesses the innocence, the simplicity, and 
the faith of a child, pierces the clouds, then will 
the prayers of these dear children of the forest 
reach the ear of Heaven." They were interested 
in the different views of the future life held 
by the different tribes. To those who lived by 



86 FATHER BE SMET AND THE BLACKFEET. 

woods and waters, heaven was a country of 
lakes, streams, and forests ; but the Blackfoot 
heaven was of great sand-hills, stretching far 
and wide, abounding in game. 

They devoted themselves with great zeal to 
reconciling hostile tribes, particularly the Black- 
feet and Flat-heads. All the tribes feared the 
Blackfeet, especially that terrible sub-tribe 
called the " Blood Indians." The Snakes, too, 
were a common enemy to all the river-tribes. 
Father De Smet, the Belgian priest, with great 
intrepidity started for the Blackfoot country, 
although receiving numerous warnings of the 
risk he incurred. He encamped in the heart of 
their country. One of their chiefs sought him 
out, and took a fancy to the fearless old man 
at sight, embracing him in savage fashion, 
"rough but cordial." This chief was orna- 
mented from head to foot with eagle -feathers, 
and dressed in blue as a mark of distinction. 
With this powerful friend, he immediately 
gained a footing among them. He conducted 
towards them with great wisdom and kindness, 
interfering as little as possible with their old 
customs. After he had made many converts 
among them, they asked him, on one of the 
great days of the Church, if he would like to 
see them manifest their joy in their own way, 



A NATIVE DANCE. 87 

— by painting, singing, and dancing ; to which 
he gave courteous assent. The dance was per- 
formed wholly by women and children, although 
in the dress of warriors. Some of them carried 
arms, others only green boughs. All took part 
in it, from the toddling infant to the ancient 
grandam whose feeble limbs required the aid 
of a staff. They carried caskets of plumes, 
which nodded in harmony with their movements, 
and increased the graceful effect. There was 
also jingling of bells, and drums beaten by the 
men who surrounded them, and joined in the 
songs. To break the monotony, occasionally a 
sudden piercing scream was added. If the 
dance languished, haranguers and those most 
skilful in grimaces came to its aid. The move- 
ment consisted of a little jump, more or less 
lively according to the beat of the drum. It 
was glanced on a beautiful green plain, under a 
cluster of pines. All the Indians climbed the 
trees, or sat round on their horses, to see it. 

The missionaries secured some of their read- 
iest converts among the Spokanes (children of 
the sun), who lived mostly on a great open 
plain. Instead of being crafty and reserved, 
like most of the tribes about them, they were 
free and genial. The} 7 welcomed the earliest 
explorers, and lived on friendly terms with the 



88 FATHER BE SMET'S LOVE OF NATURE. 

settlers. They were more susceptible to civili- 
zation and improvement than most of the other 
Indians. 

Father De Smet was enthusiastic in his en- 
jo} T ment of the forests and the mountains ; 
speaking often of the "skyward palaces and 
holy towers " among the hills, " the immortal 
pine," the "rock-hung flower," the "fantastic 
grace of the winding rivers." The desert coun- 
try through which he travelled, and of which 
we also saw something in coming to this place, 
he called " a little Arabia shut in by stern, 
Heaven-built walls of rock." In the narrow 
valleys at the foot of the Cascade Mountains, 
he found magnificent groves of rhododendrons, 
thousands of them together, fifteen or twenty 
feet high, — green arches formed underneath 
by their intertwined branches ; above, bouquets 
of splendid flowers, shading from deepest crim- 
son to pure white. 

He mourned very much over the supersti- 
tions of the Indians ; but said, nevertheless, 
that an attack of severe illness, which he suf- 
fered after one of his journeys, was no doubt 
sent as a punishment for his too carnal admira- 
tion of nature. 

While we were talking with Father Joseph, 



EXCLUSIVENESS OF COEURS D'ALENE. 89 

and looking over the journal, a messenger rocle 
up to the door, and told him that Tenas Marie 
(Little Mary) was dying. The Indian agent, 
who stood by, said, " It is not much of a loss ; 
she is a worthless creature." Father Joseph 
turned to him in a most dignified way, and said, 
" It is a human being;" and then to Christine, 
and asked if she would lend him a horse, she 
having a whole herd at command. Presently 
he started off for a whole night's ride. I 
thought, if I were Little Mary, after my bad 
life, when I must enter into account for it, I 
should be a good deal cheered and supported 
to see his kind eyes, and hear his firm voice 
directing me at the last. 

The Cceurs d'Alene (pointed hearts, or hearts 
of arrows — flint) 1 were so called from their 
determined resistance to having the white men 
come among them. They did not desire to have 
one of the Hudson Bay Company's posts upon 
their land, although the other tribes favored 
their establishment among them, wishing to 
barter their skins and obtain fire-arms; but 
said, that, if the white men saw their country, 
they would want to take it from them, it was 
so beautiful. 

1 To the Canadian voycujeur, the word alene (awl) meant 
any sharp-pointed instrument. 



90 BATTLE OF FOUR LAKES. 

Father Joseph was their interpreter in the 
negotiations between them and the United- 
States Government. They attacked Col. Step- 
toe, while he was passing through their terri- 
tory, because they had heard that the white 
men were going to build a road which would 
drive away the deer and the buffalo. It was 
explained to them, that, although this was so, 
other advantages would more than compensate 
for it. This was beyond their comprehension. 
To them, the advantages of civilization bore no 
comparison to the charm of their free, roving 
life. When the army officers entered the Cceur 
d'Alene country, they declared that no concep- 
tion of heaven could surpass the beauty of its 
exquisite lakes, embosomed in the forest. This 
tribe held firm against all propositions of the 
government to treat with them, until Donati's 
comet appeared in 1858; when, supposing it to 
be a great fiery broom sent to sweep them from 
the earth, they accepted a treaty. 

The " Battle of Four Lakes " was fought in 
this country. An old man whom we met at 
the fort in Walla Walla, who saw this battle, 
gave us some account of it. The lakes are 
surrounded with rocks, covered with pine. Be- 
yond them is a great rolling country of grassy 
hills. For about two miles, he said, this open 



BATTLE OF FOUR LAKES. 91 

ground was all alive with the wildest, most fan- 
tastic figures of mounted Indians, with painted 
horses, having eagle-feathers braided into their 
tails and manes; each Indian fighting separately 
on his own account. He described to us the 
appearance of the war chief as he rode to bat- 
tle, his own head hidden by a wolf's head, with 
stiff, sharp ears standing erect, ornamented 
with bears' claws, and under it a circlet of 
feathers. From this head depended a long 
train of feathers that floated down his back; 
the loss of which would be the loss of his honor, 
and as great a disaster to him as, to a China- 
man, the loss of his cue. His war-horse was 
painted, as well as his own person, and also 
profusely decorated with feathers on head and 
tail. The Indians have such a fancy for feath- 
ers, that, in some of their medicine ceremonies, 
they smear their heads with a sticky substance, 
and cover them all over with swan's-down. 

Lieut. Mullan's surveying expedition roused 
many of the tribes to desperation. Owhi, the 
Yakima chief, when urged to give up his land, 
— or, what amounted to the same thing, to allow 
free passage to the surveying-party and the 
road-makers, — argued that he could not give 
away the home of his people ; saying, " It is not 
mine to give. The Great Spirit has measured it 



92 THE YAKIMA CHIEF. 

to my people." Not being successful in his 
arguments, he organized the outbreak of the fol- 
lowing winter. The army destroyed the caches 
filled with dried berries, and the pressed cake 
which the Indians prepare from roots for their 
winter food, many lodges filled with grain, and 
hundreds of horses ; the officers mentioning in 
their report, that it would insure the Indians 
a winter of great suffering, and concluding in 
these words : " Seldom has an expedition been ' 
undertaken, the recollection of which is in- 
vested with so much that is agreeable, as that 
against the Northern Indians." 



VI. 



Colville to Seattle. — " Red." — " Ferrins." — " Broke Mi- 
ners." — A Rare Fellow-Traveller. — The Bell-Mare. — 
Pelouse Fall. — Red-fox Road. — Early Californians. — 
Frying-pan Incense. — Dragon-flies. — Death of the Chief 
Seattle. 

SEATTLE,.Aug. 23, 1866. 

~TT7~E were detained at Fort Colville several 
V V days longer than we desired, seeking an 
opportunity to get back to the Columbia River, 
by some chance wagon going down from the 
mines, or from some of the supply-stations in 
the upper country. In our expedition on the 
"Forty-nine," we had seen a great many mi- 
ners, and, among them, one horrid character, 
with a flaming beard, who was known by every 
one as "Red." He had been mining in the 
snow mountains, far up in British Columbia, 
and joined us to go down on the steamer to 
Colville. He was terribly rough and tattered- 
looking. The mining-season in those northern 
mountains is so short, that he said he was going 
back to winter at the mines, so as to be on the 



94 " FEBRINS." 

spot for work in the spring, and that he should 
take up about forty gallons of grease to keep 
himself warm through the winter. 

He and his companions told great stories 
about their rough times in the mountains. 
Some of them mentioned having been reduced 
to the extremity of living on " ferrins " when 
all other food had failed. These accounts were 
generally received, by the rest of the miners, with 
great outbursts of laughter. That appeared to 
be their customary way of regarding all their 
misfortunes, — at least, in the retrospect. We 
wondered what the " ferrins " could be. No- 
body seemed to resort to them, except in the 
direst need. Upon inquiry, we found out that 
they were boiled ferns. I have always noticed 
that even insects of all kinds pass by ferns. I 
suspect that even the hungriest man would find 
them rather unsatisfying, but this light diet 
seemed to have kept them in the most jovial 
spirits. 

R. was rather averse to travelling in such 
company, and always presented " Red " to me 
as the typical miner, when opportunities offered 
for our getting down from Colville with a party 
from the mines. Finally I persuaded him to 
accept either " Buffalo Bill," who offered to 
take us by ourselves, or an Irishman who in- 



"broke miners:' 95 

sis ted upon having a few miners with him. I 
think he was rather prejudiced against the 
former, on account of his name ; and we there- 
fore made an agreement with the latter, to take 
us, with only two miners, instead of ten as he 
at first desired, that R. should see them be- 
fore we started, and that we should have the 
wagon to ourselves at night. As it happened, 
we left in haste, and did not see the miners 
until they leaped from the wagon, and began 
to assist in putting in our baggage. That was 
not an occasion, of course, for criticising them. 
Besides that, I saw, when I first looked at 
them, that they were rather harder to read 
than most people I had met ; and I could not 
in a minute tell what to make of them. Our 
wagoner said they were " broke miners." I did 
not know exactly what that meant, but thought 
they might be very desperate characters, made 
more so by special circumstances. One of 
them looked like a brigand, with his dark hair 
and eyes. But I didn't mind ; for I was tired 
of travelling about, and anxious to get home. 
I thought I would sleep most of the way down ; 
so I put back my head, and shut m}^ eyes. 
Presently the dark man began to talk with 
R., in a musical voice, about the soft Spanish 
names of places in California ; and I could not 



96 A RARE FELLOW-TRAVELLER. 

sleep much. Then he spoke of the primitive 
forms in which minerals crystallized, the five- 
sicled columns of volcanic rock, and the little 
cubes of gold. I could make no pretence at 
sleep any longer ; I had to open my eyes ; and 
once in a while I asked a question or two, al- 
though I would not show much interest, and 
determined not to become at all acquainted 
with him, because we were necessarily to be 
very intimate, travelling all day together, and 
camping together at night. But I watched him 
a great deal, and listened to his conversation 
upon many subjects. I think, that not only on 
this journey, but in all the time since "we came 
to this coast, we have not enjoyed any thing 
else so much. He had uncommon powers of 
expression, and of thought and feeling too, and 
took great interest in every thing. He had even 
a little tin box of insects. He showed us the 
native grains, wild rice, etc., the footprints of 
animals, the craters of old volcanoes, and called 
us to listen to the wild doves at night, and the 
cry of the loon and the curlew. 

We travelled in a large freight-wagon, drawn 
by four mules. A pretty little " bell-mare " 
followed the wagon. At night she was tied 
out on the plain ; and the mules were turned 
loose to feed, and were kept from wandering 



A RARE FELLOW-TRAVELLER. 97 

far away by the tinkle of the bell hung on her 
neck. We slept on beautiful flowering grass, 
which oyr wagoner procured for us on the way. 
When he tied great bunches of it on the front 
of the wagon, to feed the animals when they 
came to a barren place, it looked as if we were 
preparing to take part in some floral procession. 
The first night, we camped in the midst of the 
pine-trees. When I woke in the night, and 
looked round me, the row of dark figures on 
either side seemed like the genii in " The Ara- 
bian Nights," that used to guard sleeping prin- 
cesses. 

Besides the knowledge which our fellow-trav- 
eller possessed of the country through which 
we were passing, which made him a valuable 
companion to us then, his general enthusiasm 
would have made him interesting anywhere. I 
remember a little incident at one of our noon 
stopping-places, which we thought was very 
much to his credit. He always hastened to 
make a fire as soon as we stopped. It was 
rather hard to find good places, sheltered from 
the wind, where it would burn, and which 
would furnish us, too, with a little shade. On 
this occasion there was a magnificent tree very 
near us. We were passing out of the region of 
trees, so it was a particularly welcome sight. 



98 A RARE FELLOW-TRAVELLER. 

He started the fire close to it. It happened to 
be too near; the pitch caught fire, and pres- 
ently the trunk was encircled with flame. He 
was desperate to think that he should have 
been guilty of an act of " such wanton destruc- 
tiveness," as he called it, — especially as it was 
the last fine tree on the road. He abandoned 
all idea of dinner, and did nothing through 
that fiery noon, when we could hardly stir from 
the shade, — which we found farther off, — but 
rush between the stream near by and the tree, 
with his little camp-kettle of water, to try to 
save it. He looked back with such a grateful 
face, as we left the spot, to see that the flames 
were smothered. There was something like a 
child about him ; that is, an uncommon free- 
dom from the wickedness that seems to belong 
to most men, certainly the class he is in the 
habit of associating with. I doubt if there is 
one of the men we saw on the " Forty-nine " 
who would not have been delighted to burn that 
tree down ; and how few of them would have 
thought, as he did, to put the little pieces of 
wood that we had to spare, where fuel was 
scarce, into the road, so that "some other old 
fellow, who might chance to come along, might 
see them and use them " ! 

He told us one beautiful story about miners, 



PE LOUSE FALL. 99 

though, in connection with the loss of the 
44 Central America." He had a friend on board 
among the passengers, who were almost all 
miners going home. When they all expected 
to perish with the vessel, a Danish brig hove 
in sight, and came to the rescue. But the pas- 
sengers could not all be transferred to her. 
They filled the ship's boats with their wives 
and their treasure, and sent them off; and the 
great body of them went down with a cheer 
and a shout, as the vessel keeled over. 

The event of special interest, in our journey 
home, was our visit to the Pelouse Fall. We 
had heard that there was a magnificent fall on 
the Pelouse, twelve miles by trail from the wag- 
on-road, which we were very desirous of seeing; 
but no one could give us exact directions for 
finding it. Our friend the miner wanted very 
much to see it also; and as he seemed to have 
quite an instinct for finding his way, by rock 
formations and other natural features of the 
country, we ventured to attempt it with him. 
The little bell-mare, which was a caywse (In- 
dian) horse, was offered for my use, and an old 
Spanish wooden saddle placed upon her back. 
I had no bridle ; but I had been presented at 
the fort with a hackama (a buffalo-hair rope), 
such as the Indians use with their horses. This 



100 PE LOUSE FALL. 

was attached to the head of the horse, so that 
the miner could lead her. My saddle had an 
arrangement in front by which to attach the 
lasso, in catching animals. The miner said 
that just the same pattern was still in use in 
Andalusia and other Spanish provinces. I felt 
as if I were starting on quite a new career. 
When he lifted me on to the horse, he said, 
"How light you are ! " It was because every 
care had dropped off from me. 

We rode over the wildest desert country, 
with great black walls of rock, and wonderful 
canons, with perpendicular sides, extending far 
down into the earth. Mr. Bowles, in his book, 
"Across the Continent/' says he cannot com- 
pare any thing else to the exhilaration of the air 
of the upland plains ; neither sea nor mountain 
air can equal it. The extreme heat, too, seemed 
to intensify eveiy thing in us, even our power 
of enjoyment, notwithstanding the discomfort 
of it. The thermometer marked 117° in the 
shade. I felt as if I had never before known 
what breezes and shadows and streams were. 
Just as we had reached the last limit of pos- 
sible endurance, the shadow of some great wall 
of rock would fall upon us, or a little breeze 
spring up, or we would find the land descend- 
ing to the bed of a stream. At length our 



PELOUSE FALL. 101 

miner, who had been for the last part of the 
way looking and listening with the closest at- 
tention, struck almost directly to the spot, 
hardly a step astray. It was all below the sur- 
face of the earth, so that hardly any sound rose 
above ; and there was no sign of any path to it, 
not a tree, nor shrub, nor blade of grass near, 
but an amphitheatre of rock, and the beautiful 
white river, in its leap into the canon falling 
a hundred and ninety feet. The cliffs and jag- 
ged pinnacles of basaltic rock around it were 
several hundred feet high. It looked like a 
great white bridal veil. It was made up of 
myriads of snowy sheaves, sometimes with the 
faintest amethyst tint. It shattered itself 
wholly into spray before it struck the water 
below, — that is, the outer circumference of it, 
— and the inner part was all that made any 
sound. 

The miner looked upon it with perfect rap- 
ture. He said to me, " It is a rare pleasure to 
travel with any one who enjoys any thing of 
this kind." I felt it so too. 

His striking directly at the spot, after many 
miles of travel, without any landmarks, re- 
minded me of the experience of Ross, the Hud- 
son Bay trader, when he travelled from Fort 
Okanagan on foot, two hundred miles to the 



102 RED FOX ROAD. 

coast, taking with him an Indian, who told him 
they would go by the Red Fox road ; that is, 
the road by which Red Fox the chief and his 
men used to go. After they had travelled a 
long distance over a pathless country, without 
any sign of a trail, or climbed along the rocky 
banks of streams, he asked his guide when they 
would reach the Red Fox road. " This is it, 
you are on," was the reply. " Where? " eagerly 
inquired Ross : " I see no road here, not even 
so much as a rabbit could walk on." — " Oh, 
there is no road," answered the Indian: "this 
is the place where they used to pass." 

At another time, when he was 'travelling with 
an Indian guide, who was accompanied by some 
of his relatives, the latter were left at a place 
called Friendly Lake, and were to be called 
for on their return. They went on to their 
journej^s end, and on their way back, some 
da}-s after, stopped at the place ; but no sign of 
the relatives appeared. The guide, however, 
searched about diligently, and presently pointed 
to a small stick, stuck up in the ground, with 
a little notch in it. He said, " They are there," 
pointing in the direction in which the stick 
slanted, — " one day's journey off." Exactly 
there they were found. 

There was a kind of generosity about this 



EARLY CALIFORNIANS. lU3 

" broke miner," that made us ready to forgive 
a great deal in him. No doubt there would 
have been a great deal to forgive if we had 
known him more. He was, very likely, in the 
habit of drinking and gambling, like the others 
that we saw. I know he was a terrible tobacco 
chewer and smoker. He has been seventeen 
years on the Pacific side of the continent, came 
out as a " forty-niner," has travelled a great 
deal, and taken notes of all he has seen, and 
said he thought of making use of them some 
time, if his employments would ever admit of 
it. I think he is the best fitted to describe the 
country, of all the persons I have met. 

He gave us quite a vivid idea of the semi- 
barbarous life of the California pioneers, and of 
the intense desire they sometimes felt for a 
glimpse of their homes, their wives, and chil- 
dren. I remembered Starr King's sa}dng that 
women and children had been more highly ap- 
preciated in California ever since, on account 
of their scarcity during the first few years. I 
rather think the sentiment of the miners was 
somewhat intensified by the extreme difficulty 
they found in doing women's work. One of 
them, now an eminent physician, pricked and 
scarred his fingers in the most distressing man- 
ner, in attempting to sew on his buttons, and 



104 EARLY CALIFORNIANS. 

patch the rents in his garments. Another 
member of the camp, who was afterwards gov- 
ernor of the State, won his first laurels as a 
cook, by the happy discovery, that, by combin- 
ing an acid with the alkali used in the making 
of their bread, the result was vastly more satis- 
factory than where the alkali alone was used. 
In crossing the plains, they had used the alkali 
water found there for this purpose. 

A travelling theatrical company, who pre- 
sented themselves with the announcement that 
they would perform a drama entitled " The 
Wife," met with unbounded appreciation. Car- 
penters were emploj-ed at sixteen dollars a day 
to prepare for its presentation. This was the 
first play ever acted in San Francisco. The 
company were encouraged to remain, and give 
other performances; but, as there was only one 
lady actor, every play had to be altered to 
conform to this condition of things. 

The most tempting advertisement a restau- 
rant could offer was, " potatoes at every meal." 
Those who indulged in fresh eggs did so at an 
expense of one dollar per egg. 

When the signal from Telegraph Hill an- 
nounced the arrival of the monthly mail-steamer, 
there was a general rush for the post-office ; and 
a long line was formed, reaching from the office 



EARLY CALIFORNIANS. 105 

out to the tents in the chapparal. The build- 
ing was a small one, and the facilities for assort- 
ing and delivering the mail so limited, that 
many hours were consumed in the work. Large 
prices were often paid for places near the head 
of the line ; and some of the more eager ones 
would wrap their blankets around them, and 
stand all night waiting, in order to get an early 
chance. 

Thus, with endless stories and anecdotes, ac- 
counts of his adventures as a miner and explorer, 
and descriptions of the new and wonderful 
places he had visited, and the curious people 
he had met, our fellow-traveller beguiled the 
tediousness of the journey, and continually en- 
tertained us. 

As we approached Walla Walla, we made our 
last camp at the Touchet, a lovely stream. I 
woke in the morning feeling as if some terrible 
misfortune had befallen us. I could not tell 
what, until I was fully roused, and found it 
could be nothing else than that we must sleep 
in a bed that night. 

We left our miner in Walla Walla, to get 
work, I think, as a machinist. My acquaint- 
ance with him was a lesson to me, never to 
judge any one by appearance or occupation. 
We met afterwards some little, common-look- 



106 FRYING-PAN INCENSE. 

ing men, who had been so successful at the 
mines that they could hardly carry their sacks 
of gold-dust, which made hard white ridges in 
their hands. They had fifteen thousand dollars 
or more apiece. I thought, how unequally and 
unwisely Fate distributes her gifts ; but then, 
as Mrs. S. said when there was such a rush for 
the garments brought on board the steamer for 
us at Panama, after our shipwreck, "Let those 
have them who can least gracefully support the 
want of them." 

Among the miners of the upper country, who 
had not seen a white woman for a year, I 
received such honors, that I am afraid I should 
have had a very mistaken impression of my 
importance if I had lived long among them. 
At every stopping-place they made little fires 
in their frying-pans, and set them around me, 
to keep off the mosquitoes, while I took nry 
meal. As the columns of smoke rose about me, 
I felt like a heathen goddess, to whom incense 
was being offered. The mosquitoes were terri- 
ble ; but we found our compensation for them 
in the journey homeward. I remember the ento- 
mology used to call the dragon-fly the "mos- 
quito-hawk ; " and such dragon-flies I never 
before saw as we met with near the rivers, espe- 
cially at the Pelouse. There seemed to be a 



DRAGON-FLIES. 107 

festival of them there, and one kind of such 
a green as I believe never was seen before 
on earth, — so exquisite a shade, and so vivid. 
There were also burnished silver and gold ones, 
and every beautiful variety of spotting and 
marking. A little Indian boy appeared there, 
dressed in feathers, with a hawk on his wrist, 
— a wild, spirited-looking little creature. 

On Sunday we reached Olympia, and saw the 
waters of the Sound, and the old headlands 
again. I had no idea it could look so homelike; 
and when the mountain range began to reveal 
itself from the mist, I felt as if nothing we had 
seen while we were gone had been more beauti- 
ful, more really impressive, than what we could 
look at any day from our own kitchen-door. 

As we approached Seattle, we began to gather 
up the news. It is very much more of an event 
to get back, when you have had no newspapers, 
and only the rarest communication of any kind, 
while you have been gone. 

Seattle, the old chief, had died. When he 
was near his end, he sent word over to the 
nearest settlement, that he wished Capt. Meigs, 
the owner of the great sawmill at Port Madi- 
son, to come when he was dead, and take him 
by the hand, and bid him farewell. 

We learned that the beautiful Port Angeles 



108 PORT ANGELES ABANDONED. 

was to be abandoned, — Congress having decided 
to remove the custom-house to Port Townsend, 
— and that no vessels would go in there. It 
seemed like leaving Andromeda on her rock. 
We are going down to make a farewell visit. 



VII. 

Port Angeles Village and the Indian Ranch. — A " Ship's 
Kloptchman." — Indian Muck-a-Muck. — Disposition of an 
Old Indian Woman. — A Windy Trip to Victoria. — The 
Black Tamdhnous. — McDonald's in the Wilderness. — 
The Wild Cowlitz. -Up the River during a Flood. — In- 
dian Boatmen. — Birch-bark and Cedar Canoes. 

Ediz Hook, Oct. 21, 1866. 

"VTTE are making a visit at the end of Ediz 
V V Hook. No one lives here now but the 
light-keepers. When we feel the need of com- 
pany, we look across to the village of Port 
Angeles and the Indian ranch. It is very strik- 
ing to see how much more picturesque one is 
than the other, in the distance. In the village, 
all the trees have been cut down ; but the lodges 
of the Indians stand in the midst of a maple 
grove, and in this Indian-summer weather there 
is always a lovely haze about it, bright leaves, 
and blue beams of mist across the trees. Liv- 
ing so much out of doors as they do, and in 
open lodges, their little fires are often seen, giv- 
ing their ranch a hospitable look, and making 

109 



110 A "SHIP'S KLOOTCHMAN." 

the appearance of the village very uninviting 
in comparison. 

Oct. 26, 1866. 

We have had a great storm ; and last night, 
abont dark, a white figure of a woman appeared 
in the water, rising and falling, outside the 
breakers. Some Indians went out in their 
canoes, and took her in to the shore. One of 
them came to tell us about it. A " ship's hlootch- 
rnan" (wife or woman), he said it was, and a 
" hyas [big] ship " must have gone down. It 
was the figure-head of a vessel. The next 
morning, I saw that the Indians had set it 
up on the sand, with great wings — which they 
made of broken pieces of spars — at the sides. 
It was the large, handsome figure of a woman, 
twice life-size. They seemed to regard it as a 
kind of goddess ; and I felt half inclined to, my- 
self, she looked out so serenely at the water. I 
sat down by her side, thinking about what had 
probably happened, to try to get her calm way 
of regarding it. A sloop was sent over from 
the custom-house, to take it across the bay for 
identification; but that proved impracticable. 
The captain said that he knew the work, — 
it was English carving. Soon after, a vessel 
came in, having lost her figure-head. The men 
on board said that a strange ship ran into her 



DISPOSITION OF AN OLD INDIAN WOMAN 111 

in the night, and immediately disappeared. 
They supposed she was much injured, as they 
afterwards saw a deck-load of lumber floating, 
which they thought had come from her. They 
said it might be the "Radania," bound for 
China. 

Oct 29, 1866. 

To-day, when we were coasting along the 
shore, we saw Yeomans preparing his canoe for 
a long excursion. It was lined with mats. In 
the middle were two of the baskets the Indians 
weave from roots, filled with red salmon-spawn. 
Against them lay a gray duck, with snowy 
breast ; then, deer-meat, and various kinds of 
fishes. Over the whole he had laid great green 
leaves that looked like the leaves of the tulip- 
tree. The narrow end of the canoe was filled 
with purple sea-urchins, all alive, and of the 
most vivid color. I took one up, and asked him 
if they were good to eat. He said, "Indian 
muck-a-muck, not for Bostons " (whites). His 
arrangements looked a great deal more pictur- 
esque than our preparations for picnics. 

The light-keeper at Ediz Hook told us to-day 
that he had exhumed an old Indian woman, 
whom some of her tribe had buried alive, or, 
rather, wrapped up and laid away in one of the 
little wooden huts in their graveyard, according 



112 A frlNDY TRIP TO VICTORIA. 

to their custom of disposing of the dead. They 
had apparently become tired of the care of her, 
and concluded to anticipate her natural exit 
from the world by this summary disposition 
of her. Mr. S. heard her cries, and went to 
the rescue. He restored her to the tribe, with 
a reprimand for their barbarity, and told them 
the Bostons would not tolerate such mesahchie 
(outrageous) proceedings. 

Port Angeles, Oct. 31, 1866. 

We made a spirited voyage to Victoria, across 
the Straits of Fuca. There had been a very 
severe storm, which we thought was over ; but 
it had a wild ending, after we were on our 
way, and beyond the possibility of return. We 
saw the California steamer, ocean-bound, put- 
ting back to port. Our only course was to 
hasten on. The spray was all rainbows, and 
there were low rainbows in the sky, — incom- 
prehensible rainbows above and below, — and 
the strongest wind that ever blew. It was all 
too wonderful for us to be afraid : it was like a 
new existence ; as if we had cast off all connec- 
tion with the old one, and were spirits only. 
We flew past the high shores, and looked up 
at the happy, homelike houses, with a strange 
feeling of isolation and independence of all 
earthly ties. 



THE BLACK TAMAHNOUS. 113 

I staid on deck till every man had gone in, 
feeling that I belonged wholly to wind and 
wave, borne on like a bird. Bnt the captain 
came and took me in, lest I should be swept 
from the deck. When we reached Victoria, 
great wooden signs were being blown off the 
stores, and knocking down the people in the 
streets. This is certainly the home of the winds. 

Nov. 20, 1866. 

To-day we met on the beach Tleyuk (Spark 
of Fire), a young Indian with whom we had 
become acquainted. Instead of the pleasant 
" Klahoivya" (How do you do?), with which he 
was accustomed to greet us, he took no notice 
of us whatever. On coming nearer, we saw 
hideous streaks of black paint on his face, and 
on various parts of his body, and inquired what 
they meant. His English was very meagre ; 
but he gave us to understand, in a few hoarse 
gutturals, that they meant hostility and dan- 
ger to any one that interfered with him. We 
noticed afterwards other Indians, with dark, 
threatening looks, and daubed with black 
paint, gathering from different directions. The 
old light-keeper was launching his boat to cross 
over to the spit, and we turned to him for an 
explanation. He warned us to keep away from 



114 MCDONALD'S IN THE WILDERNESS. 

the Indians, as this was the time of the " Black 
Tamdhnous" when they call up all their hos- 
tility to the whites. He pointed to some Indian 
children, who had a white elk-horn, like a dwarf 
white man, stuck up in the sand to throw stones 
at. I had noticed for the last few days, when 
I met them in the narrow paths in the woods, 
that they stopped straight before me, obliging 
me to turn aside for them. 

We saw them withdraw to an old lodge in 
the woods, as if to hold a secret council. We 
did not feel much concerned as to the result 
of it for ourselves, as we held such friendly 
relations to Yeomans, the old chief, and had 
always given the Indians all the sea-bread they 
wanted, — that being the one article of our 
food that they seemed most to appreciate. As 
it proved, it was a mere thunder-cloud, dissi- 
pated after a few growls. 

McDonald's, Dec. 18, 18G6. 

Not knowing the name of the nearest town, 
I date this from McDonald's, that having been 
our last stopping-place. It is on the stage-route 
between Columbia River and Puget Sound, and 
a place worth remembering. I wish I could 
give an idea of its cheeriness, especially after 
travelling a fortnight in the rain, as we have 



MCDONALD'S IN THE WILDERNESS. 115 

done. At this season of the year, every thing 
is deluged ; and the roads, full of deep mud- 
holes and formidable stumps, are now at their 
worst. The heavy wagons move slowly and 
laboriously forward, sometimes getting so deep 
in the mire that it is almost impossible to ex- 
tricate them, and at times impeded by fallen 
trees, which the driver has to cut away. They 
are poorly protected against the searching 
rains, and for the last two days we have been 
drenched. 

When we caught the first glimpse of the red 
light in the distance, we felt very much inclined 
to appreciate any thing approaching comfort, 
tired and dripping as we were ; but what our 
happy Fates had in store for us, we never for a 
moment imagined. We had hardly entered the 
house before we felt that it was no common 
place. The fireplace was like a great cavern, 
full of immense logs and blazing bark. It 
lighted up a most hospitable room. From a 
beam in the low ceiling, hung a great branch 
of apples. I counted twenty-three bright red 
and yellow apples shining out from it. 

Two stages meet here, and the main business 
at this time of the year is drying the passen- 
gers sufficiently for them to proceed on their 
way the next day. The host and his family 



116 MCDONALD'S IN THE WILDERNESS. 

stood round the fire, handling and turning the 
wet garments with unbounded good-nature and 
patience. The stage-drivers cracked jokes and 
told stories. A spirit of perfect equality pre- 
vailed, and a readiness to take every thing in 
the best possible part. The family are Scotch, 
— hard-working people ; but they have not 
worked so hard as to rub all the bloom off their 
lives, as so many people have that we have 
seen. 

When supper was announced, another sur- 
prise awaited us. Instead of the unvarying 
round of fried meat and clammy pie with which 
we had hitherto been welcomed, we were re- 
freshed with a dish of boiled meat, a corn-starch 
pudding, and stewed plums. Why some other 
dweller in the wilderness could not have intro- 
duced a little variety into his bill of fare, we 
could never conceive. It seemed a real inspi- 
ration in McDonald, to send to California or 
Oregon for a little dried fruit and some papers 
of corn-starch. He gave us, too, what was even 
more delightful than his wholesome food, — a 
little glimpse of his home-life. To a tired trav- 
eller, what could be more refreshing than a 
sight of somebody's home? Generally, at what- 
ever place we stopped, we saw only the " men- 
folks ; " the family, often half-breed, being hud- 



MCDONALD'S IN THE WILDERNESS. 117 

died away in the rear. Here, in the room 
in which the guests were received, lay the smil- 
ing baby in its old-fashioned cradle. Two 
blithe little girls danced in and out, and the 
old grandfather sat holding a white-haired boy. 
When dinner was over, the great business of 
drying the clothes was resumed by the trav- 
ellers and the family ; and we held our wrap- 
pings by the fire, and turned them about, until 
we became so drowsy that we lost all sense of 
responsibility. We found, the next morning, 
that our host sat up and finished all that were 
left undone. He had become so accustomed to 
this kind of work, that he did not seem to con- 
sider it was any thing extra, or that it entitled 
him to any further compensation than the 
usual one for a meal and a night's lodging. 
When we offered something more, he pointed 
to a little box nailed up beside the door, over 
which was a notice that any one who wished 
might contribute something for a school which 
the Sisters were attempting to open for the chil- 
dren of that neighborhood. Being Scotch peo- 
ple, I could hardly believe they were Catholics; 
but found upon inquiry that their views were so 
liberal as to enable them to appreciate the ad- 
vantages of education, by whomsoever offered. 
I was quite touched by McDonald's little con- 



118 THE WILD COWLITZ. 

tribution to civilization, in the midst of the wil- 
derness. As I looked back, in leaving, at the 
great trees and the exquisitely curved slope of 
his little clearing, I felt that in the small log 
house was something worthy of the fine sur- 
roundings. 

Oltmpia, Dec. 23, 1866. 

When we reached Cowlitz Landing, we found 
the river quite different in character from what 
we had known it before. It had risen many 
feet above its ordinary level, and was still ris- 
ing, and had become a wide, fierce, and rushing 
stream, bearing on its surface great trees and 
fragments of wrecked buildings, swiftly sailing 
down to the Columbia. How serenely we 
descended the river last year, floating along at 
sunset, admiring the lovely valley and the hills, 
reaching over the side of the canoe, and soak- 
ing our biscuits in the glacier-water, without 
once thinking of the vicissitudes to which we 
were liable from its mountain origin ! 

The little steamer that recently had begun to 
compete with the Indian canoes in the traffic of 
the river, and the carrying of passengers, did 
not dare to attempt to ascend it. Navigation 
was not to be thought of by ordinary boats, or 
by white men, and was possible only by canoes 
in the most trusty hands. No land-conveyance 



UP THE RIVER DURING A' FLOOD. 119 

could be had at this point. We were told that 
we might take the stream, by those familiar 
with it, if we could find good Indians willing to 
go with us. One called " Shorty " was brought 
forward to negotiate with us. He has the same 
dwarfed appearance I have noticed in the old 
women, and that strange, Egyptian-looking face 
and air. It would be impossible for any one to 
tell, by his appearance, whether he personally 
were old or young ; but the ancientness of the 
type is deeply impressed upon him. If half- 
civilized Indians had been offered, or those that 
had had much intercourse with the whites, I 
should have hesitated more to trust them ; but 
he was such a pure Indian, it seemed as if he 
were as safe as any wild creature. Whether he 
would extend any help, in emergencies, to his 
clumsy civilized passengers, was a more doubt- 
ful question. However, as the alternative was 
to wait indefinitely, and the character of the 
stopping-places, as a rule, drives one to desper- 
ate measures, we confided ourselves to his hands, 
and embarked with him and his assistant, a fine 
athletic young Indian. 

We fixed our eyes intently upon him, as if 
studying our fates. He was perfectly imper- 
turbable, and steered only, the other poling the 
canoe along the edge of the stream, and grasp- 



120 INDIAN BOATMEN. 

ing the overhanging trees to pull it along, using 
the paddle only when these means were not 
available. His work required unceasing vigil- 
ance and activity, and was so hard that it would 
have exhausted any ordinary man in a few 
hours ; but he kept on from early morning till 
dark. Alwaj^s in the most difficult places, or if 
his energy seemed to flag in the least, Shorty 
would call out to him, in the most animated 
manner, mentioning a canoe, a hammock, and a 
hyas closhe (very nice) klootchman; at which the 
young man would laugh with delight, and start 
anew. I considered it was probably his stock 
in life, the prospect of an establishment, which 
was presented to rouse and cheer him on. 
Shorty had been recommended to us as one of 
the best hands on the river. I began to see 
that it was for his power of inspiring others, as 
well as for his extreme vigilance in keeping out 
of the eddies, and avoiding the drift in crossing 
the river, to be caught in which would have 
been destruction. We crossed several times, 
to secure advantages which his quick eye per- 
ceived. I noticed that whenever he pointed 
out any particular branch on the shore to be 
seized, how certain the other was to strike it at 
once. With white men, Iioav much blundering 
and missing there would have been ! 



INDIAN BOATMEN. 121 

I never felt before, so strongly, how many 
vices attend civilization, which it seems as if 
men might just as well be free from, as when I 
compared these Indians with the common white 
people about us, — the stage-drivers, mill-men, 
and others, — with no smoking nor drinking 
nor tobacco-chewing, and so strong and grace- 
ful, and sure in their aim, that no gymnast I 
have ever seen could compare with them. The 
ingenious ways in which they helped themselves 
along in places where any boat of ours would 
have been immediately overturned, converting 
obstacles often into helps, were fascinating to 
study. As night came on, I began to wish that 
their consciences were a little more developed, 
or, rather, that they had a little more sense of 
responsibility with regard to us. The safety of 
their passengers is no burden whatever on the 
minds of the Indians. Their spirits seem to rise 
with danger. They know that they could very 
well save themselves in an emergency, and I 
believe they prefer that white people should be 
drowned. I could only look into the imper- 
turbable faces of our boatmen, and wonder 
where we were to spend the night. Finally, 
with a terrible whirl, which I felt at the time 
must be our last, they entered a white foaming 
slough (a branch of the river), and drew up on 



122 INDIAN BOATMEN. 

the bank. They announced to us then that we 
were to walk a mile through the woods, to a 
house. I think no white man, even the most 
surly of our drivers, would have asked us to do 
that, — in perfect blackness, the trees wet and 
dripping, — but would have managed to bring 
us to some inhabited place. They started off at 
a rapid gait, and we followed. We could not 
see their forms : but one carried something 
white in his hand, which we faintly discerned 
in the darkness, which served as our guide. 
They sang and shouted, and sounded their 
horn, all the way. I supposed it was to keep 
off bad spirits, but the next day we heard that 
in those woods bears and panthers were some- 
times found. At length a light appeared. We 
felt cheered; but when we approached it, two 
furious dogs rushed out at us. They were im- 
mediately followed by their master, who took 
us in. After consultation with him, we con- 
cluded to abandon our Indians, as he said he 
could take us, on the following day, through 
the woods to the next stopping-place, with his 
ox-team. The quiet comfort of being trans- 
ported by oxen was something not to be re- 
sisted, after having our nerves so racked. We 
felt an immense satisfaction in coming again 
upon our own kind, even if it were only in an 



BIRCH-BARK AND CEDAR CANOES. 123 

old log cabin, where the children were taken 
out of their bed to put us in. 

We have seen no bark canoes here ; they are 
all of cedar. No doubt there is good canoe- 
birch on the river-banks, but something more 
durable is needed. The North-west Fur Com- 
pany, in early days, sent out a cargo of birch 
from Montreal to London, to be shipped from 
there round Cape Horn to the north-west coast 
of America, to be made into canoes for their 
men to navigate the Columbia and its branches ; 
in direst ignorance of the requirements of the 
country, as well as of its productions. 



VIII. 

Voyage to San Francisco. — Fog-bound. — Port Angeles. — 
Passing Cape Flattery in a Storm. — Off Shore. — The 
"Brontes." —The Captain and his Men. — A Fair Wind. 
— San Francisco Bar. — The City at Night. — Voyage to 
Astoria. — Crescent City. — Iron-bound Coast. — Mount 
St. Helen's. —Mount Hood. — Cowlitz Valley and its 
Floods. — Monticello. 

San Francisco, Feb. 20, 1867. 

"TTXE are here at last, contrary to all our 
* * expectations for the last ten clays. We 
left Puget Sound at short notice, taking passage 
on the first lumber-vessel that was available, with 
many misgivings, as she was a dilapidated-look- 
ing craft. We went on board at Port Madison, 
about dusk, — a dreary time to start on a sea- 
voyage, but we had to accommodate ourselves 
to the tide. The cabin was such a forlorn-look- 
ing place, that I was half tempted to give it up 
at the last ; when I saw, sitting beside the rusty, 
empty stove, a small gi^-and-white cat, purr- 
ing, and rubbing her paws in the most cheery 
manner. The contrast between the great, cold, 

124 



FOG-BOUND. 125 

tossing ocean, and that little comfortable crea- 
ture, making the best of her circumstances, so 
impressed me, that I felt ashamed to shrink 
from the voyage, if she was willing to under- 
take it. So I unpacked my bundles, and settled 
down for a rough time. There were only two 
of us as passengers, lumber-vessels not making 
it a part of their business to provide specially 
for their accommodation. 

The sky looked threatening when we started ; 
and the captain said, if he thought there was a 
storm beginning, he would not try to go on. 
But as we got out into the Straits of Fuca, the 
next day, a little barque, the " Crimea," came 
up," and said she had been a week trying to get 
out of the straits, and thought the steady south- 
west wind, which had prevented her, could not 
blow much longer. We continued beating 
down towards the ocean, and in the afternoon 
a dense fog shut us in. The last thing we saw 
w T as an ocean-steamer, putting back to Victoria 
for shelter. Our captain said his vessel drew 
too much water for Victoria Harbor, and the 
entrance was too crooked to attempt ; but, if he 
could find Port Angeles, he would put in there. 
A gleam of sunshine shot through the fog, and 
showed us the entrance ; and we steered tri- 
umphantly for that refuge. Two other vessels 



126 PASSING CAPE FLATTER 7 IN A STORM. 

had anchored there. But just as we were about 
rounding the point to enter, and were congratu- 
lating ourselves on the quiet night we hoped to 
spend under the shelter of the mountains, the 
captain spied a sail going on towards the ocean. 
He put his vessel right about, determined to 
face whatever risks any other man would. But 
the vessel seemed unwilling to go. All that 
night, and the next day, and the next night, we 
rode to and fro in the straits, unable to get out. 
Passing Cape Flattery is the great event of 
the voyage. It is always rough there, from the 
peculiar conformation of the land, and the con- 
flict of the waters from the Gulf of Georgia, 
and other inlets, with the ocean-tides. Our 
captain had been sailing on this route for fifteen 
years, but said he had never seen a worse sea 
than we encountered. We asked him if he 
did not consider the Pacific a more uncertain 
ocean than the Atlantic. At first he said 
" Yes ; " then, " No, it is pretty certain to be 
bad here at all times." What could Magellan's 
idea have been in so naming it ? He, however, 
sailed in more southern latitudes, where it may 
be stiller. We expected to sail on the water; 
but our vessel drove throvgh it, just as I have 
seen the snow-plough drive through the great 
drifts after a storm. Going to sea on a steamer 



PASSING CAPE FLATTERY. 127 

gives one no idea of the winds and waves, — the 
real life of the ocean, — compared to what we 
get on a sailing-vessel. Every time we tried to 
round the point, great walls of waves advanced 
against us, — so powerful and defiant-looking, 
that I could only shut my eyes when they drew 
near. It did not seem as if I made a prayer, 
but as if I were myself a prayer, only a winged 
cry. I knew then what it must be to die. I 
felt that I fled from the angry sea, and reached, 
in an instant, serene heights above the storm. 

Finally, as the result of all these desperate 
efforts, in which we recognized no gain, the 
captain announced that we had made the point, 
but we could get no farther until the wind 
changed ; and, while we still felt the fury of 
the contrary sea, it was hard to recognize that 
we had much to be grateful for. We saw one 
beautiful sight, though, — a vessel going home, 
helped by the wind that hindered us. It was 
at night ; and the light struck up on her dark 
sails, and made them look like wings, as she 
flew over the water. What bliss it seemed, to 
be nearing home, and all things in her favor ! 

I could hear all about us a heavy sound like 
surf on the shore, which was quite incompre- 
hensible, as we were so far from land. But the 
water drove us from the deck. The vessel 



128 OFF SHORE. 

plunged head foremost, and reeled from side to 
side, with terrible groaning and straining. If 
we attempted to move, we were violently thrown 
in one direction or another ; and finally found 
that all we could do was to lie still on the 
cabin-floor, holding fast to any thing stationary 
that we could reach. We could hear the water 
sweeping over the deck above us, and several 
times it poured down in great sheets upon us. 
We ventured to ask the captain what he was 
attempting to do. " Get out to sea," he said, 
" out of the reach of storms." That is brave 
sailing, I thought, though I would not have 
gone if I could have helped it. We struggled 
on in this way for a day and a night, and then 
he said we were beyond the region of storms 
from land. I am afraid I should, if left to my- 
self, linger always with the faint-hearted mari- 
ners who hug the shore, notwithstanding this 
great experience of finding our safety by steer- 
ing boldly off from every thing wherein we had 
before considered our only security lay. After 
this, I performed every day the great exploit of 
climbing to the deck, and looking out at the 
waste of water. I saw only one poor old vessel, 
pitching and reeling like a drunken man. I 
wondered if we could look so to her. She was 
always half-seas-over. I came to the conclusion 



THE CAPTAIN AND HIS MEN. 129 

it was best not to watch her, but it was hard 
to keep my eyes off of her. She was our com- 
panion all the way down, always re-appearing 
after every gale we weathered, though often 
far behind. I remember, just as we were fairly 
under way, hearing a man sing out, " There's 
the old ' Brontes ' coming out of the straits." 
My associations with the name were gloomy 
in the extreme. 

When the wind and sea were at their worst, 
considering the extremity, we felt called upon 
to offer some advice to the captain, and sug- 
gested that, under such circumstances, it might 
be advisable to travel under bare poles ; but 
that, he assured us, was only resorted to when 
a man's voice could not possibly be heard in 
giving orders. 

The captain was quite a study to us. On 
shore he presented the most ordinary appear- 
ance. When we had been out two or three 
days, I noticed some one I had not seen before 
on deck, and thought to myself, " That is an 
apparition for a time of danger, — a man as res- 
olute as the sea itself, so stern and gray-look- 
ing. " I was quite bewildered, for I thought I 
must certainly before that have seen every one 
on board. It proved to be the captain in his 
storm-clothes. One of the sailors was a Rus- 



130 THE CAPTAIN AND HIS MEN. 

sian serf, running away, as he said, from the Czar 
of Russia, not wholly believing in the safety of 
the serfs. He had shipped as a competent sea- 
man ; but when he was sent up to the top of 
the mizzen-mast, to fix the halliards for a sig- 
nal, he stopped in the most perilous place, and 
announced that he could not go any farther. 
It seems that every man on board was a stran- 
ger to the captain. It filled us with, anxiety to 
think how much depended on that one man. 
One night there was an alarm of " A man over- 
board ! " If it had been the captain, how aim- 
lessly we should have drifted on ! I liked to 
listen, when we were below, to hear the men 
hoisting the sails, and shouting together. It 
sounded as if they were managing horses, now 
restraining them, and now cheering them on. 
When the captain put his hand on the helm, 
we could always tell below. There was as 
much difference as in driving. In the midst of 
the wildest plunging, he would suddenly quiet 
it by putting the vessel in some other position, 
just as he would have held in a rearing horse. 

Two or three times, when there was a little 
lull, I went on deck ; and the air was as balmy 
as from a garden. What can it mean, this fra- 
grance of fresh flowers in the midst of the sea? 

Some virtues, I think, are admirably culti- 



SAN FRANCISCO BAR. 131 

vatecl at sea. Night after night, as we lay there, 
I said to the captain, " What is the meaning of 
those clouds ? " or " that dull red sky ? " And 
he answered so composedly, " It's going to be 
squally," that I admired his patience ; but it 
wore upon us very much. 

At length, one night, as I lay looking up 
through our little skylight, at the flapping of 
the great white spanker-sheet, — my special 
enemy and dread, because the captain would 
keep it up when I thought it unsafe, it seemed 
such a lawless thing, and so ready to overturn 
us every time it shifted, — a great cheerful star 
looked in. It meant that all trouble was over. 
One after another followed it. I could not 
speak, I was so glad. I could only look at 
them, and feel that our safety was assured. 
The wind had changed. I appreciated the 
delight of Ulysses in " the fresh North Spirit " 
Calypso gave him " to guide him o'er the sea," 
— the rest of our voyage was so exhilarating. 

We had one more special risk only, — cross- 
ing the bar of San Francisco Bay. The cap- 
tain said, if he reached it at night, he expected 
to wait until daylight to enter ; but I knew 
that his ambitious spirit would never let him, 
if it were possible to get over. About three 
o'clock in the morning, I heard a new sound 



132 THE CITY AT NIGHT. 

in the water, like the rippling of billows, as 
if it were shallow. I hastened upon deck, and 
found that we were apparently on the bar. The 
captain and the mate differed about the sound- 
ing. Immediately after, I heard the captain 
tell a man to run down and see what time it 
was-, and, upon learning the hour, heard him 
exclaim, in the deepest satisfaction, "Flood- 
tide, sure ! Well, we had a chance ! " I felt as 
if we had had a series of chances from the time 
we left Port Angeles Harbor, to the running 
in without a pilot, and drifting, as we did, into 
the revenue-cutter, just as we anchored. We 
had a beautiful entrance, though. It is a long 
passage, an hour or two after crossing the bar. 
San Francisco lay in misty light before us, 
like one of the great bright nebulae we used 
to look at in Hercules, or the sword-handle of 
Perseus. It is splendidly lighted. As we drew 
nearer, there seemed to be troops of stars over 
all the hills. 

Astoria, Ore., Oct. 17, 1868. 

In making the voyage from San Francisco, I 
could hardly go on deck at all, until the last 
day; but, lying and looking out at my little 
port-hole, I saw the flying-fish, and the whales 
spouting, and the stormy-petrels and gulls. 

On Sunday the boat was turned about ; and 



CRESCENT CITY. 133 

when we inquired why, we were told that the 
wind and sea were so much against us, we were 
going to put back into Crescent City. It came 
at once into our minds, how on Sunday, three 
years before, the steamer "Brother Jonathan," 
in attempting to do the same thing, struck a 
rock, and foundered, and nearly all on board 
were lost. 

Crescent City is an isolated little settlement, 
a depot for supplies for miners working on the 
rivers in Northern California. It has properly 
no harbor, but only a roadstead, filled with the 
wildest-looking black rocks, of strange forms, 
standing far out from the shore, and affords a 
very imperfect shelter for vessels if they are so 
fortunate as to get safely in. The Coast Sur- 
vey Report mentions it as "the most dangerous 
of the roadsteads usually resorted to, filled with 
sunken rocks and reefs." It further says; that 
"no vessel should think of gaining an anchor- 
age there, without a pilot, or perfect knowledge 
of the hidden dangers. The rocks are of pecul- 
iar character, standing isolated like bayonets, 
with their points just below the surface, ready 
to pierce any unlucky craft that may encounter 
them." The " Dragon Rocks " lie in the near 
vicinity, at the end of a long reef that makes 
out from Crescent City. All the steamers that 



134 MOUNT ST. HELEN'S. 

enter or depart from there must pass near 
them. 

It is very remarkable, that, while the Atlan- 
tic coast abounds in excellent harbors, on the 
Pacific side of the continent there is no good 
harbor where a vessel can find refuge in any 
kind of weather between San Francisco Bay 
and San Diego to the south, and Port Angeles, 
on the Straits of Fuca, to the north. It is fitly 
characterized by Wilkes as an " iron-bound 
coast." 

We reached here Saturday night. Sunday 
morning, hearing a silver triangle played in the 
streets, we looked out for tambourines and 
dancingrgirls, but saw none, and were presently 
told it was the call to church. We were quite 
tempted to go and hear what the service would 
be, but the sound of the breakers on the bar 
enchained us to stop and listen to them. 

Portland, Ore., Oct. 20, 1868. 

In coming up the river from Astoria, we had 
always in view the snow-white cone of St. 
Helen's, one of the principal peaks of the Cas- 
cade Range. Nothing can be conceived more 
virginal than this form of exquisite purity ris- 
ing from the dark fir forests to the serene sky. 
Mount Baker's symmetry is much marred by 



COWLITZ VALLEY AND ITS FLOODS. 135 

the sunken crater at the summit ; Mount Rai- 
nier's outline is more complicated: this is a 
pure, beautiful cone. It is so perfect a picture 
of heavenly calm, that it is as hard to realize its 
being volcanic as it would be to imagine an out- 
burst of passion in a seraph. Fremont reports 
having seen columns of smoke ascending from 
it, and showers of ashes are known to have 
fallen over the Dalles. 

As we approached Portland, the sharp-pointed 
form of Mount Hood came prominently into 
■view. Portland would be only a commonplace 
city, the Willamette River being quite tame 
here, and the shores low and unattractive ; but 
this grand old mountain, and the remnant of 
forest about it, give it an ancient, stately, and 
dignified look. 

Olympia, Oct. 30, 1868. 

In crossing from the Columbia River to the 
Sound, we saw, along the Cowlitz Valley, marks 
of the havoc and devastation caused by the 
floods of last winter. The wild mountain stream 
had swept away many familiar landmarks since 
we were last there ; in fact, had abandoned its 
bed, and taken a new channel. It gave us a 
realizing sense of the fact that great changes 
are still in process on our globe. Where we 
had quietly slumbered, is now the bed of the 



136 MONTICELLO. 

stream. We mourned over the little place at 
Monticello, where for eight years a nice garden, 
with rows of trim currant-bushes, had gladdened 
the eyes of travellers, and the neat inn, kept by 
a cheery old Methodist minister, had given 
them hospitable welcome, — not a vestige of 
the place now remaining. Civilization is so 
little advanced in that region, that few men 
would have the heart or the means to set out a 
garden. 



IX. 

Victoria. — Its Mountain Views, Rocks, and Flowers. —Van- 
couver's Admiration of the Island. — San Juan Islands. — 
Sir James Douglas. — Indian Wives. —Northern Indians. 
— Indian Workmanship. — The Thunder-bird. — Indian 
Offerings to the Spirit of a Child. — Pioneers. — Crows and 
Sea-birds. 

Victoria, B.C., Nov. 15, 1868. 

"TT7~E are to stay for several months in this 
VV place. We are delightfully situated. 
The house has quite a Christmas look, from the 
holly and other bright berries that cluster round 
the windows. The hall is picturesquely orna- 
mented with deer's horns and weapons and 
Indian curiosities. But the view is what we 
care most about. On our horizon we have the 
exquisite peaks of silver, the summits of the 
Olympic Range, at the foot of which we lived 
in Port Angeles. We look across the blue 
straits to them. Immediately in front is an oak 
grove, and on the other side a great extent of 
dark, Indian-looking woods. There are nearer 
mountains, where we can see all the beautiful 
changes of light and shade. Yesterday they 

137 



138 VICTORIA. 

were wrapped in haze, as in the Indian summer, 
and every thing was aoft and dreamy about 
them ; to-day they stand out bold and clear, 
with great wastes of snow, ravines, and land- 
slides, and dark prominences, all distinctly de- 
fined. When the setting sun lights up the 
summits, new fields of crystal and gold, and 
other more distant mountains, appear. 

It is very refreshing to get here, the island 
has such a rich green look after California. It 
is quite rocky about us ; but the rocks even are 
carpeted deep with moss, and the old gnarled 
branches of the oaks have a coating of thick, 
bright velvet. It is now the middle of Novem- 
ber ; and the young grass is springing up after 
the rain, and even where it does not grow 
there is no bare earth, but brown oak-leaves 
and brakes, with soft warm colors, particularly 
when the sun strikes across them. The skies, 
too, are like those at home, with the magnificent 
sunrise and sunset that only clouds can give. 
The California sky is, much of the time, pure 
unchanging blue. 

When we first landed here, we were very 
much impressed by the appearance of the coast, 
it being bold and rocky, like that of New Eng- 
land ; while on the opposite side of the straits, 
and almost everywhere on the Sound, are 



VANCOUVER'S ADMIRATION OF THE ISLAND. 139 

smooth, sandy shores, or high bluffs covered 
with trees. The trees, too, at once attracted 
our attention, — large, handsome oaks, instead 
of the rough firs, and a totally different under- 
growth, with many flowers wholly unknown on 
the opposite side, which charmed us with their 
brilliancy and variety of color; among them 
the delicate cyclamen, and others that we had 
known only in greenhouses. They continually 
recalled to us the surprise of some of the early 
explorers at seeing an uncultivated country 
look so much like a garden. We were told 
that much less rain falls here than on the 
American side ; the winds depositing their moist- 
ure as snow on the mountains before they 
reach Victoria, which gives it a drj T er winter 
climate. 

Vancouver, in his narrative, repeatedly speaks 
of the serenity of the weather here, and says 
that the scenery recalled to him delightful places 
in England. He felt as if the smooth, lawn- 
like slopes of the island must have been cleared 
by man. Every thing unsightly seemed to have 
been removed, and only what was most graceful 
and picturesque allowed to remain. He says, 
" I could not possibly believe that any unculti- 
vated country had ever been discovered exhibit- 
ing so rich a picture." When requested by the 



140 SAN JUAN ISLANDS. 

Spanish Seignor Quadra to select some harbor 
or island to which to give their joint names, in 
memory of their friendship, and the successful 
accomplishment of their business (they having 
been commissioned respectively by their gov- 
ernments to tender and receive the possessions 
of Nootka, given back by Spain to Great Brit- 
ain), he selected this island as the fairest and 
most attractive that he had seen, and called it 
the " Island of Quadra and Vancouver." The 
" Quadra," as was usual with the Spanish names, 
was soon after dropped. 

Between Vancouver's Island and Washing- 
ton Territory lie the long-disputed islands of 
the San Juan group ; the British claiming that 
Kosario Strait is the channel indicated in the 
Treaty of 1846, which would give them the 
islands ; while the United States claim that De 
Haro Strait is the true channel, and that the 
islands belong to them. 

These islands are valuable for their pastur- 
age and their harbors, and most of all for their 
situation in a military point of view. While 
this question is still in dispute, the British fort 
at one end of San Juan, and the American fort 
at the other, observe towards each other a re- 
spectful silence. 



SIB JAMES DOUGLAS. 141 

Dec. 1, 1868. 
Sir James Douglas, the first governor of 
British Columbia, selected the site of Victoria. 
Owing to his good taste, the natural beauty of 
the place has been largely preserved. The oak 
groves and delicate undergrowth are a great 
contrast to the rude mill-sites of the Sound, 
where every thing is sacrificed to sending off so 
much lumber. He lives at Victoria in a simple, 
unpretending way. It was made a law in Brit- 
ish Columbia, that no white man should live 
with an Indian woman as wife, without mar- 
rying her. He set the example himself, by 
marrying one of the half-breed Indian women. 
Some of the chief officers of the Hudson Bay 
Company did the same. The aristocracy of Vic- 
toria has a large admixture of Indian blood. 
The company encouraged their employes, mostly 
French Canadians, to take Indian wives also. 
They were absolute in prohibiting the sale of 
intoxicating drinks to the Indians, and dis- 
missed from their employ any one who violated 
this rule. They gave the Indians better goods 
than they got from the United-States agents ; 
so that they even now distinguish between a 
King George (English) blanket, and a Boston 
(American) blanket, as between a good one 
and a bad one. 



142 NORTHERN INDIANS. 

It was, no doubt, owing to the influence of 
Sir James Douglas, that Lady Burdett Coutts 
sent out and established a high school here for 
boys and girls. 

Dec. 5, 1868. 

We saw here some of the Northern Indians 
of the Haiclah tribe, from Queen Charlotte's 
Islands. They came in large canoes, some of 
which would hold a hundred men, and yet 
each was hollowed out of a single log of cedar. 
They came down to bring a cargo of dogfish- 
oil to the light-house at Cape Flattery. They 
camped for two weeks on the beach, and we 
went often to see them. Having led such an 
isolated life on their islands, surrounded by 
rough water, and hardly known to white men, 
they have preserved many peculiarities of their 
tribe, and are quite different in their looks and 
habits from the Indians of Puget Sound. Some 
of the old women had a little piece of bone or 
pearl shell stuck through the lower lip, which 
gave them a very barbarous appearance ; but 
in many ways the men had more knowledge of 
arts and manufactures than any other Indians 
we have seen. They showed us some orna- 
ments of chased silver, which they offered for 
sale ; also bottle-shaped baskets, made of roots 
and bark, so closely woven together as to hold 



TEE "THUNDER-BIRD." 143 

water. But most curious to us were some lit- 
tle black, polished columns, about a foot high, 
that looked like ebony. They were covered 
with carvings, very skilfully executed. When 
we took them into our hands, we were surprised 
at their weight, and found that they were made 
of a fine, black coal-slate. A man who stood 
by explained to us that this slate is a peculiar 
product of their islands. When first quarried, 
it is so soft as to be easily cut; and when after- 
ward rubbed with oil, and exposed to the air, 
it becomes intensely hard. At the foot of 
the column was the bear, who guards the en- 
trance of their lodges ; at the top, the crow, 
who presides over every thing. On some were 
frogs and lizards. One was surmounted by the 
"thunder-bird," a mythological combination of 
man and bird, who lives among the moun- 
tains. When he sails out from them, the sky is 
darkened ; and the flapping of his wings makes 
the thunder, and the winking of his eyes the 
lightning. It is very strange that the " thun- 
der-bird " should be one of the deities of the 
Indians of the North-west, where thunder is so 
rare as to be phenomenal. We heard of him 
in other parts of British Columbia, and see him 
represented in carvings from Sitka. Tatoosh 
Island, off Cape Flattery, where the Makah In- 



144 INDIAN GAME. 

dians live, derives its name from Tootootche, 
the Nootka name for the " thunder-bird." The 
Makahs originally came from the west coast 
of Vancouver's Island. They deem themselves 
much superior to the tribes of the interior, be- 
cause they go out on the ocean. Their home 
being on the rocky coast islands, they naturally 
look to the water to secure their living. Their 
chief business is to hunt the whale, they being 
the only Indians who engage in this pursuit. 

Sometimes we found the Indians so deeply 
interested in a game they were playing, that 
they took no notice of us. It was played with 
slender round sticks, about six inches long, 
made of yew wood, so exquisitely polished that 
it had a gloss like satin. Some of the sticks 
were inlaid with little bits of rainbow pearl, 
and I saw one on which the figure of a fish was 
very skilfully represented. It is quite incom- 
prehensible, how they can do such delicate 
work w T ith the poor tools they have. They use 
only something like a cobbler's knife. 

They shuffled the sticks under tow of cedar- 
bark, droning all the time a low, monotonous 
chant. It is curious that any thing so extremely 
simple can be so fascinating. They will sit all 
day and night, without stopping for food, and 
gamble away every thing they possess. It ap- 



INDIAN BURIAL-PLACE. 145 

peared to be identical with the old game of 
" Odd or Even " played by the ancient Greeks, 
as described by Plato. 

We saw here the great conical hat worn by 
the Cape-Flattery Indians, similar in form to 
the Chinese hat; and also some blankets of 
their own manufacture, woven of dog's hair. 

Port Townsend, Washington Territory, 
April 4, 1869. 

This afternoon we rode past the grave-yard of 
the Indians on the beach. It is a picturesque • 
spot, as most of their burial-places are. They 
like to select them where land and water meet. 
A very old woman, wrapped in a green blanket, 
was digging clams with her paddle in the sand. 
She was one of those stiff old Indians, whom we 
occasionally see, who do not speak the Chinook 
at all, and take no notice whatever of the whites. 
I never feel as if they even see me when I am 
with them. They seem always in a deep dream. 
Her youth must have been long before any 
white people came to the country. When she 
dies, her body will be wrapped in the tattered 
green blanket, and laid here, with her paddle, 
her only possession, stuck up beside her in the 
sand. 

We saw two Indians busy at one of the little 



146 OFFERINGS TO THE SPIRIT OF A CHILD. 

huts that cover the graves. They were nailing 
a new red covering over it. We asked them 
if a chief was dead. A klootchman we had not 
noticed before looked up, and said mournfulty, 
" No," it was her " little woman." I saw that 
she had before her, on the sand, a number of 
little bright toys, — a doll wrapped in calico, 
a musical ball, a looking-glass, a package of 
candy and one of cakes, a bright tin pail full 
of sirup, and two large sacks, one of bread, 
and the other of apples. 

Another and older woman was picking up 
driftwood, and arranging it for a fire. When 
the men had finished their work at the hut, 
they came and helped her. They laid it very 
carefully, with a great many openings, and 
level on the top, and lighted it. 

Then the grandmother brought a little pur- 
ple woollen shawl, and gave it to the old man. 
He held it out as far as his arm could reach, 
and waved it, and apparently called to the spirit 
of the child to come and receive it ; and he then 
cast it into the fire. He spoke in the old Indian 
language, which they do not use in talking with 
us. It sounded very strange and thrilling. Each 
little toy they handled with great care before 
putting it into the flames. After they had 
burned up the bread and the apples, they poured 



OFFERINGS TO THE SPIRIT OF A CHILD. 147 

on some sugar, and smothered the flames, 
making a dense column of smoke. 

Then they all moved a little farther back, and 
motioned us to also. We wondered they had 
tolerated us so long, as they dislike being ob- 
served ; but they seemed to feel that we sympa- 
thized with them. The old man staid nearest. 
He lay down on the sand, half hidden by a 
wrecked tree. He stripped his arms and legs 
bare, and pulled his hair all up to the top of his 
head, and knotted it in a curious way, so that 
it nodded in a shaggy tuft over his forehead. 
Then he lay motionless, looking at the fire, 
once in a while turning and saying something 
to the women, apparently about the child, as I 
several times distinguished the word tenas-tenas 
(the little one). I thought perhaps he might 
be describing her coming and taking the things. 
At times he became very animated. They did 
not stir, only answered with a kind of mournful 
" Ah — ah," to every thing he said. 

At last their little dog bounded forward, as 
if to meet some one. At that, they were very 
much excited and pleased, and motioned us to 
go farther off still, as if it were too sacrilegious 
for us to stay there. They all turned away 
but the old man, and he began to move in a 
stealthy way towards the fire. All the clumsi- 



148 OFFERINGS TO THE SPIRIT OF A CHILD. 

ness and weight of a man seemed to be gone. 
He was as light and wiry as a snake, and glided 
round the old drift that strewed the sand, with 
his body prostrate, but his head held erect, and 
his bright eyes fixed on the fire, like some wild 
desert creature, which he appeared to counter- 
feit. The Indians think, that, by assuming the 
shape of any creature, they can acquire some- 
thing of its power. When he had nearly 
reached *the fire, he sprang up, and caught 
something from it. I could not tell whether it 
was real or imaginary. He held it up to his 
breast, and appeared to caress it, and try to 
twine it about his neck. I thought at first 
it was a coal of fire ; perhaps it was smoke. 
Three times he leaped nearly into the flames in 
this way, and darted at something which he 
apparently tried to seize. Then he seemed to 
assure the others that he had accomplished his 
purpose ; and they all went immediately off, 
without looking back. 

April 20, 1869. 
We are surprised to find so many New-Eng- 
land people nbout us. Many of those who are 
interested in the saw-mills are lumbermen from 
Maine. The two men who first established 
themselves in the great wilderness, with un- 



PIONEERS. 149 

broken forest, and only Indians abont them, 
are still living near us. They are men of re- 
sources, as well as endurance. A man who 
comes to do battle against these great trees 
must necessarily be of quite a different char- 
acter from one who expects, as the California 
pioneer did, to pick up his fortune in the dust 
at his feet. I am often reminded of Thoreau's 
experience in the Maine woods. He says, "The 
deeper you penetrate into the woods, the more 
intelligent, and, in one sense, less countrified, 
do you find the inhabitants ; for always the 
pioneer has been a traveller, and to some ex- 
tent a man of the world ; and, as the distances 
with which he is familiar are greater, so is his 
information more general and far-reaching." 

May 30, 1869. 

The gulls and crows give parties to each 
other on the sand, at low-tide. Farther out 
are the ducks, wheeling about, and calling to 
each other, with sharp, lively voices. It is curi- 
ous to watch them, and try to understand their 
impulses. Sometimes they are all perfectly 
motionless, sitting in companies of hundreds, in 
the deepest calm; sometimes all in a flutter, 
tripping over the water, with their wings just 
striking it, uttering their shrill cry. They dive, 



150 CROWS AND SEA-BIRDS. 

but never come to shore. What one does, all 
the rest immediately do. Sometimes the whole 
little fleet is gone in an instant, and the water 
unruffled above them. 

The prettiest among them is the spirit-duck, 
— its motion is so beautiful, as it breasts the 
little billows, or glides through the still water. 
Their bosoms are so like the white-caps, I have 
to look for their little black heads, to see where 
they are. Once in a while, a loon comes sail- 
ing along, in its slow, stately way, turning its 
slender, graceful neck from side to side, as if 
enjoying the scenery. We never see more than 
two of them together, and they generally sepa- 
rate soon. 



X. 



Puget Sound and Adjacent Waters. — Its Early Explorers.— 
Towns, Harbors, and Channels. — Vancouver's Nomencla- 
ture. — Juan de Fuca. — Mount Baker. — Chinese " Wing." 
— Ancient Indian Women. — Pink Flowering Currant and 
Humming-Birds. — " Ah Sing." 

Port Townsend, Sept. 10, 1869. 

'TTT'E have been spending a day or two in 
V V travelling about the Sound by steamer, 
touching at the various mill-towns and other 
ports, where the boat calls, to receive and de- 
liver the mails, or for other business. Every 
time we pass over these waters, we admire anew 
their extent and beauty, and their attractive sur- 
roundings, their lovely ba} r s and far-reaching 
inlets, their bold promontories and lofty shores, 
their setting in the evergreen forest, and the 
great mountains in the distance, standing guard 
on either side. 

The early explorers who visited this part of 
the country evidently had a high appreciation 
of it, as their accounts of it show. Vancouver, 
who came in 1792, expressed so much admira- 

151 



152 TEE EARLY EXPLORERS. 

tion of these waters and their surroundings, 
that his statements were received with hesita- 
tion, and it was supposed that his enthusiasm 
as an explorer had led him to exaggeration. 
But Wilkes, who followed him many years 
afterwards, confirmed all that he had said, and, 
in his narrative, writes as follows regarding this 
great inland sea : — 

"Nothing can exceed the beauty of these 
waters, and their safety. Not a shoal exists 
within the Straits of San Juan de Fuca, Ad- 
miralty Inlet, Puget Sound, or Hood's Canal, 
that can in any way interrupt their navigation 
by a seventy-four-gun ship. I venture nothing 
in saying there is no country in the world that 
possesses waters equal to these." 

In another account Wilkes writes : " One of 
the most noble estuaries in the world ; without a 
danger of any kind to impede navigation ; with 
a surrounding country capable of affording all 
kinds of supplies, harbors without obstruction 
at any season of the year, and a climate unsur- 
passed in salubrity." 

More recently the United-States Coast Sur- 
vey Report of 1858 declares, that, "For depth 
of water, boldness of approaches, freedom from 
hidden dangers, and the immeasurable sea of 
gigantic timber coming down to the very 



PUGET SOUND AND ITS CONNECTIONS. 153 

shores, these waters are unsurpassed, unap- 
proachable." 

We were at first puzzled by the various 
names given to the different waters over which 
we travelled ; but soon discovered, that, while 
the term "Puget Sound " is popularly applied 
to the whole of them, it properly belongs only 
to the comparatively small body of water lying 
beyond the " Narrows," at the southern end, 
and the arms and inlets that branch therefrom. 

The great natural divisions of this system 
are : the Straits of Juan de Fuca, extending 
from the ocean eastward about eighty miles, 
and then branching into the vast Gulf of 
Georgia to the north, and Admiralty Inlet to 
the south ; Hood's Canal, branching from the 
latter, on the west side, near the entrance, and 
running south-west about si^ty miles ; Posses- 
sion Sound, branching from the east side, and 
extending north between Whidby Island and the 
mainland, as far as Rosario Straits; and Puget 
Sound, connected with the southerly end of 
Admiralty Inlet by the "Narrows." 

We commenced our recent trip at Victoria, 
and crossed the Straits of Fuca, — through 
which the west wind draws as through, a tun- 
nel, — to Port Angeles. This place was named 
by Don Francisco Elisa, who was sent out to 



154 PORT ANGELES. — DUNGENESS. 

this region in 1791 by the Mexican Viceroy. 
Of course Don Francisco must compliment the 
Viceroy by giving his name to some important 
points. This royal personage had a string of 
ten proper names, besides his titles. These Don 
Francisco distributed according to his judgment. 
Being apparently a religious man, he was mind- 
ful also of the claims of saints and angels ; and, 
when he reached the first good harbor on the 
upper coast, he called it Puerto de los Angeles 
(Port of the Angels). 

Proceeding eastward, the next point of in- 
terest is New Dungeness, so called by Van- 
couver from its resemblance in situation to 
Dungeness on the British Channel. The har- 
bor of this place, like that of Port Angeles, is 
formed by a long sand-spit that curves out from 
the shore. On account of this resemblance, 
Vancouver gave to Port Angeles the name of 
False Dungeness, thinking it might be mistaken 
for the other. But this name has been dropped, 
and the more poetical designation of the Span- 
iard retained. The pious Elisa called the long- 
pointed sand-spit at Dungeness " the Point of 
the Holy Cross." 

The great body of water north of Vancouver's 
Island, which had not yet received its name, 
he called Canal de JVuestra Senora del Rosario 



PORT TOWNSEND. 155 

(the Channel of Our Lady of the Rosary). 
When Vancouver, in the following year, gave 
his own name to the island, he called this body 
of water the Gulf of Georgia, in honor of George 
III., the reigning king of England. The name 
given by Elisa is still retained by the strait east 
of the De Haro Archipelago. 

The next place at which we stopped was Port 
Townsend. This was named, by Vancouver, 
Marrowstone Point, from the cliff of marrow- 
stone at the head of the peninsula ; but this 
name was afterwards given to the headland on 
the opposite side of the entrance to Port Town- 
send Bay, to the south-east of the town, and 
the name of Townshend, one of the lords of 
the Admiralty, was given to the bay. The 
town afterwards took the same name, dropping 
the h from it. Admiralty Inlet commences 
here, and was named by Vancouver in honor 
of the Board of Admiralty for whom he sailed. 
Hood's Canal was named for another of the 
lord-members of the Board. 

Opposite, across the inlet, to the north and 
east, lies Whidby Island, which Vancouver 
named for one of his lieutenants. It is a pity 
it could not have had some more poetic name, 
it is so beautiful a place ; it is familiarly known 
here as the " Garden of the Territory." It was 



156 WHIDBY ISLAND. 

formerly owned and occupied by the Skagit In- 
dians, a large tribe, who had several villages 
there, and fine pasture-grounds ; their name 
being still retained, by the prominent headland 
at the southern extremity of the island. I heard 
one of the passengers remark that there were 
formerly white deer there. I strained my eyes 
as long as it was in sight, hoping to see one of 
these lovely creatures emerge from the dark 
woods; but in vain. Wilkes says that the 
Skagit Indians had large, well-built lodges of 
timber and planks. But, since so many tribes 
have been swept away by the small-pox, most 
of them have lost their interest in making sub- 
stantial houses, feeling that they have so little 
while to live. North of Whidby is Fidalgo 
Island, named for a Spanish officer. Between 
them is a narrow passage, called Deception 
Pass, very intricate and full of rocks, above 
and below the water, and most difficult to navi- 
gate, — in striking contrast to the waters of the 
Sound in general. 

We called at Port Ludlow and Port Gamble, 
the latter on Hood's Canal, near the entrance, 
— Teekalet being its Indian name. Returning 
to Admiralty Inlet, we presently passed Skagit 
Head, at the entrance of Possession Sound, 
so named by Vancouver to commemorate the 



VANCOUVER'S NOMENCLATURE. 157 

formal taking possession, by him, o£ all the ter- 
ritory around the Straits of Fuca and Admiralty 
Inlet, on the king's birthday. 

We steamed serenely on, over the clear, still 
water, to Port Madison, and then crossed the 
inlet to Seattle. Thence we proceeded south, 
and passed Vashon Island, which has many 
attractive features. Quartermaster's Harbor, 
at the southern end, is a lovely place ; and beau- 
tiful shells and fossils are to be found there. 
Occasionally we came across a great boom of 
logs, travelling down to some saw-mill; or a 
crested cormorant, seated on a fragment of 
drift, sailed for a while in our company. We 
passed on through the " Narrows," and entered 
Puget Sound proper, named for Peter Puget, 
one of Vancouver's lieutenants, who explored 
it. 

All Vancouver's friends, patrons, and officers 
— lieutenants, pursers, pilots, and pilot's mates 
— are abundantly honored in the names scat- 
tered about this region. He appears, too, to 
have had a good appreciation of nature, and 
praised, in his report, the landscape and the 
flowers. He regarded somewhat, in his nomen- 
clature, the natural features of the country; 
as in Point Partridge, the eastern headland of 
Whidby Island ; Hazel Point, on Hood's Canal ; 



158 STEILACOOM. — OLYMPIA. 

Cypress Island, one of the San Juan group ; and 
Birch Bay, south of the delta of Fraser River. 

The Spanish explorers in this region do not 
seem to have taken much pains to record and 
publish the result of their discoveries. Vancou- 
ver held on to his with true English grip, and 
often supplanted their names by others of his 
own choosing. 

At night we reached Steilacoom, where there 
was formerly a military post. It has an impos- 
ing situation, with a fine mountain view; and 
there are some excellent military roads leading 
from it in various directions. 

We spent a pleasant day at Olympia, which 
lies at the southern extremity of the Sound, 
and resembles a New-England village, with its 
maples shading the streets, and flower-gardens. 
It has an excellent class of people, as have the 
towns upon the Sound in general; and the 
evidences of taste and culture, which are con- 
tinually seen, are one of the pleasantest charac- 
teristics of this new and thinly settled part of 
the country. 

There are no saw-mills on the Straits of Fuca, 
and the slight settlements along its shores have 
scarcely marred their primitive wildness and 
beauty. The original forest-line is hardly 
broken ; the deer still come down to the water's 



MOUNT BAKER. 159 

edge ; and the face of the country has apparently 
not changed since Vancouver, nearly a hundred 
years ago, stooped to gather the May roses at 
Dungeness ; or Juan de Fuca, two centuries 
earlier, " sailed into that silent sea," and looked 
round at the mountains, — not less beautiful, 
though more imposing, than those that lay 
about his own home on the distant Mediterra- 
nean. 

Dec. 10, 1869. 

We have just seen an English gentleman who 
came over to this country for the purpose of 
ascending Mount Baker, first called by the 
Spaniards Montana del Carmelo. He was three 
years in trying to get a small company to at- 
tempt the expedition with him. Indians do not 
at all incline to ascending mountains ; they 
seem to have some superstitious fear about it. 
I believe this mountain has never been explored 
to any extent. He describes the colors of the 
snow and ice as intensely beautiful. He has 
travelled among the Alps, but saw an entirely 
new phenomenon on the summit of Mount 
Baker, — the snow like little tongues of flame. 
In the deep rifts was a most exquisite blue. 
On the last day's upward journey, they were 
obliged to throw away all their blankets, — as 
they were not able to carry any weight, — and 



160 CHINESE " WING." 

depend on chance for the night's shelter. How 
well Fate rewarded them for trusting her ! 
They happened at night upon a warm cavern, 
where any extra coverings would have been 
quite superfluous. It was part of the crater, 
but they slept quietly notwithstanding. 

Jan. 15, 1870. 

We have now a little Chinese boy to live 
with us ; that is, he represents himself as a boy, 
but he seems more as if he were a most ancient 
man. He might have stepped out of some 
Ninevite or Egyptian sculpture. He is like the 
little figures in the processions on the tombs, 
and his face is perfectly grave and unchanging 
all the time. I feel about him, as I do about 
some of the Indians, — as if he had not only 
his own age, but the age of his race, about him. 

There never could be any thing more in- 
appropriate than that he should be named 
" Wing," for no creature could be farther 
from any thing light or airy. One reason, I 
think, why he seems so different from any of 
his countrymen that we have seen, is because 
he has never lived in a city, but only in a small 
village, which he says has no name that we 
should understand. 

He works in the slowest possible way, but 



CHINESE " WING." 161 

most faithfully and incessantly, and never 
shows the slightest desire for any recreation 
or rest. Even the anticipation of the great na- 
tional Chinese feast, which is to be celebrated 
next month, and which occurs only once in a 
thousand years, has failed to arouse any enthu- 
siasm in him, and he is apparently quite indif- 
ferent to it. 

Our goat has taken a great dislike to him, — 
I think just because he is so different from her- 
self. She is always making thrusts at him with 
her horns, and trying to butt him over. But 
he preserves, even toward her, his uniform 
sweet manner ; calls her a " sheep," entirely 
ignoring her rude, fierce ways; leads her to 
pasture every day, under great difficulties ; and 
attempts to milk her, at the risk of his life. 
The serenity of these people is really to be 
envied ; they go on their way so perfectly un- 
disturbed, whatever happens. 

April 80, 1870. 

The tides are very peculiar here. Every 
alternate fortnight they run very low, and then 
the beach is uncovered so far out that we can 
take long rides on it, as far as the head of the 
bay. 

We are very much entertained with seeing 



162 ANCIENT INDIAN WOMEN. 

the old Indian crones digging clams. They 
appear to be equally amused with us, and 
chuckle with delight as we pass. It seems 
very strange to see human beings without the 
least approach to any thing civilized or artifi- 
cial, with the single exception of the old blan- 
kets knotted about them with pieces of rope ; 
but when I compare them with civilized women 
of the same age, who are generally helpless, I 
see that they have a great advantage over them. 
They are out everywhere, in all weathers, and 
do always the hardest of the work. We meet 
them often in the woods, so bowed down under 
the loads of bark on their backs, that it looks 
as if the bark itself had a stout pair of legs, 
and were walking. Our horse is always fright- 
ened, and can never get used to them. 

We can ride now for hours on the beach, 
looking at the water on one side, and on the 
other at the densely wooded bluffs, now most 
beautifully lighted up by the pink flowering 
currant. It is like the rhodora at home, in re- 
spect to coming very early, — the flowers before 
the leaves. At first it is of a delicate faint pink; 
but as the season advances it becomes very deep 
and rich in color, and contrasts most beautifully 
with the drapery of light-gray moss, and the 
dark fir-trees. 



"AH SING." 163 

This flower attracts the humming-bird, and 
furnishes its earliest food. This delicate, tropi- 
cal-looking little creature is the first bird to 
arrive ; coming often in March from its winter 
home in California, where it lives on another 
species of flowering currant that blooms through 
the winter. 

In making some excavations here, there have 
been found the bones and teeth of the Ameri- 
can elephant, and with them a bone made into 
a wedge, such as the Indians here use in split- 
ting wood ; which seems to imply great antiquity 
for their race. 

Aug. 10, 1870. 

We have a new China boy, Ah Sing, who is 
very impulsive and enthusiastic, quite a differ- 
ent character from the unemotional Wing. 
He is almost too zealous to learn. R. began to 
teach him his letters, to make him contented. 
I hear him now repeating them over and over 
to himself, with great emphasis, while he is 
washing the clothes. He is so big and strong, 
that they come out with great force. A few 
nights ago, after everybody had gone to bed, 
he came down past our room, and went into 
the kitchen. R. followed him to see what was 
the matter, and, as the boy looked a little wild, 
thought perhaps he was going into a fit. He 



164 "AH SING." 

had seized the primer, and was flourishing it 
about and gesticulating with it ; and finally R., 
who has a wonderful faculty for comprehending 
the Chinese, divined that he had gone to bed 
without a lesson, and could not sleep Tintil he 
had learned something. 



XI. 



Rocky-mountain Region. — Railroad from Columbia River to 
Puget Sound. — Mountain Changes. — Mixture of Nation- 
alities. — Journey to Coos Bay, Oregon. — Mountain Cavion. 
— A Branch of the Coquille. — Empire City. — Myrtle 
Grove. — Yaquina. — Genial Dwellers in the "Woods. — Our 
Unknown Neighbor. — Whales. — Pet Seal and Eagle. — 
A Mourning Mother. — Visit from Yeomans. 

Port Townsekd, Nov. 18, 1872. 
"TTTE had quite a pleasant journey back from 

V V the East, and saw some things we must 
have passed in the night on our trip thither. 
About the Rocky-mountain region we saw what 
appeared to be immense ruins ; but they were 
really natural formations, resembling old castles, 
with ramparts and battlements and towers. I 
could not help feeling as if they must belong 
to some gigantic extinct race. On the wide, 
solitary plains they were most imposing. 

At the Laramie Plains, where we stopped a 
while, we were so blinded by the glittering 
crystals of quartz and specks of mica, we could 
well understand why the name of the Glitter- 

165 



166 RAILROAD TO PUGET SOUND. 

ing Mountains was first given to the Rocky- 
mountain Range. 

We saw at Cheyenne a most curious cactus. 
Outside, it was only a green, prickly ball ; in- 
side, was a deep nest, filled with a cluster of 
pink blossoms. 

We looked into the beautiful Blue Canon — 
blue with mist. Hundreds of feet below us 
was the gliding silver line of a stream. 

At one of our stopping-places was a team of 
buffalo and oxen working together. To see 
this chief Manitou of the Indians so degraded, 
was like seeing a captive Jugurtha. 

We found great changes had taken place 
within a year between Columbia River and 
Puget Sound. Where we used to cross alone, 
in the deepest solitude of the forest, there were 
cars running, gangs of Chinamen everywhere 
at work, great burnt tracts, and piles of fire- 
wood. Once in a while a stray deer bounded 
by, and turned back to look at us, with pretty, 
innocent curiosity. And there were still some 
of the old trees left standing, gnarled and 
twisted, and so thickly coated with moss, that 
great ferns grew out of it, and hung down from 
the branches. What a pity to destroy the work 
of centuries, the like of which we shall never 
see again ! 



MOUNTAIN CHANGES. 167 

We saw to-day some of the pretty spotted 
sea-doves, that have just arrived to spend the 
winter with ns. Puget Sound, with its mild 
climate, is their Florida or Bermuda. In early 
spring they return to the rocky lagoons of the 
North, to pair and breed. 

Dec. 15, 1872. 

With our wider range from the hill-top to 
which we have removed, we notice more how 
the appearance of the mountains changes with 
the changes of the sky. This morning they 
were all rose-color ; and are now so ghostly, the 
snow like shrouds about them. Before, we had 
only single chains and solitary peaks ; here, we 
look into the bosom of a mountainous country, 
and every change in the light reveals something 
new. Where we have many times looked with- 
out seeing any thing, at length some beautiful 
new outline appears in faint silver on the dis- 
tant horizon. Heaven ought to be more real 
to us for living in sight of what is so inaccessi-" 
ble, and so full of beauty and mystery. 

March 9, 1873. 

We are very much struck with the mixture 
of nationalities upon this coast. We were so 
fortunate as to secure last winter the services 



168 A SWEDISH GIRL. 

of a splendid great Swedish girl, the heartiest 
and healthiest creature I ever saw. There did 
not seem to be a shadow of any kind about 
her, nor any thing more amiss with her in any 
way than there is with the sunshine or the blue 
sky. All kinds of work she took alike, with 
equal readiness, and never admitted to her mind 
a doubt or anxiety on any subject. 

We felt sorry enough, when we had had her 
only three weeks, to have the foreman of the 
mill come and beg us to release her. It seems 
they were engaged to be married when they 
left Sweden; but, being of thrifty natures, they 
had agreed to work each a year before settling 
down in marriage. The constant sight of her 
charms proved too much for him, and they 
decided that all they needed to begin life to- 
gether was their wealth of affection and their 
exuberant health and spirits. 

Her size may be imagined, when I mention 
that her lover brought up six rings in succes- 
tion, to try to find one big enough to go over 
her finger. Finally he squeezed on the largest 
one he could obtain, as an absolutely essential 
ceremony to bind them together, and smiled 
with delight to see that it could never be 
taken off. 

The only help we could find in her place, at 



RUSSIAN GEORGE. 169 

such short notice, was a Russian boy, lately 
arrived from Kocliac. When we first saw him, 
we were quite disheartened at his appearance, 
his mouth and eyes were so like those of a fish, 
and he seemed so terribly uncivilized. I at- 
tempted to intimate that I thought we could 
not undertake to do any thing with him. He 
seemed to suspect what I thought, — although he 
could not understand my words, — and took up a 
piece of paper, and wrote some Russian words on 
it. I asked him what they meant ; and he said, 
" Jesus Christ, he dead ; he get up again ; men 
and devils he take them all up." I supposed 
the most civilized person he had ever seen was 
the priest ; and, as the priest had taught him 
that, he thought it was a kind of introduction 
for him, and that I should feel it to be a bond 
of union between us. I did not feel quite so 
much as if he were a fish or a seal afterward. 
All the time, even over the hot cooking-stove, 
he kept his rough fur cap on his head. His 
great staring eyes rolled round in every direc- 
tion ; and he looked so utterly uncouth and so 
bewildered, that I doubted very much if he 
could ever be adapted to our needs. 

To my great surprise, however, he learned 
very fast, stimulated by his curiosity to know 
about every thing. What made him appear so 



170 JOURNEY TO COOS BAY. 

very stupid at first was, that lie felt so strongly 
the newness of all his surroundings. After he 
learned to talk with us, he interested us yery 
much with accounts of his own country, and 
with the letters he read us from his father, an 
old man of ninety, who had spent his life in 
charge of convicts in Siberia. He wrote his 
father that he was homesick ; and the old man 
replied : " You homesick — work ! work by and 
by make you strong ! " His letters were direct- 
ed only : " Son mine — George Olaf." He 
seemed to trust to some one on the way, to take 
an interest in their reaching him. 

The boy generally set up his hymn-book in 
some place where he could occasionally glance 
at it, and chant his Russian hymns, while he 
was about his work. On the other side, the 
nurse sang Dutch songs to the baby. 

July 1, 1873. 

We have just returned from a long, rough 
journey in southern and western Oregon. We 
crossed the Coast Range of mountains, — not 
so high and snow-capped as the Cascades, but 
beautiful to watch in their variations of light 
and shade, always the shadows of clouds travel- 
ling over them, and mists stealing up through the 
dark ravines. A Dutchwoman — ■ our fellow- 



MOUNTAIN FLOWERS. 171 

passenger — was in ecstasies, exclaiming con- 
tinually : " How beautiful is the land here ! 
How bracht [bright] ! " — noticing all the sun- 
lighted places ; but I was more attracted by the 
shadows. I heard another hard-looking woman 
say to a man, that she cried when she saw the 
hills, they were so beautiful. There was a deep 
welcome in them ; something human and respon- 
sive seemed to fill the stillness. In these solitary 
places, remote from all other associations, it 
seems as if Nature could communicate more 
directly with us. 

I noticed, more than I ever did before, the 
difference in the appearance and bearing of 
the flowers ; how some seemed only to flaunt 
themselves, and others had so much more char- 
acter. As we passed a little opening in the 
woods, a great dark purple flower, that was a 
stranger to me, fixed its gaze upon me so that 
I felt the look, as we sometimes do from human 
eyes. Any thing supernatural is so in keeping 
with these solitary places, I felt as if some one 
had assumed that form to greet me. There 
were some beautiful new flowers ; among them 
a snow-white iris, which was very lovely. It 
seemed like a miracle that this fair little crea- 
ture should come up so unsoiled out of the 
rough, black earth. 



172 MOUNTAIN CANON. 

We crossed the mountain range through a 
canon. The road wound round and round the 
sides of it, sometimes so narrow that it seemed 
hardly more than an Indian trail. We had a 
true California driver, who shouted out to us 
every few minutes, to hold on tight, or all to 
get together on one side, or something equally 
suspicious ; but dashed on without any regard 
to danger. We were in constant expectation 
of being hurled to the bottom ; but it quick- 
ened our senses to enjoy the beauty about us, 
to feel that any moment might be our last. 
We saw below us great trees that filled the 
canon. They were so very tall, that it appeared 
as if, after having grown into what would be 
recognized everywhere as lofty trees, they had 
altered their views altogether as to what a tall 
tree really should be, and started anew. We 
did not wholly enjoy looking down at their 
great mossy arms, stretched out as if to re- 
ceive us. Everywhere was the most exquisite 
fragrance, from the Linnsea and other flowers. 
At the bottom was a little thread of a brook. 
After we passed through the cauon, the brook 
came out, and went down the mountain side 
with us. It was very lively company. Some- 
times it hid from us, but we could tell where 
it was, by the rushing of the water. Then it 



EMPIRE CITY. 173 

would appear again, whirling and eddying 
about the rocks. In some places, its bed was 
of pure, hard stone, with basins full of foam. 
Sometimes the rocks were covered with dark, 
rich moss. There were retired little falls in it, 
that seemed like nuns, so unregarding as they 
were of all the commotion about them. Then 
the whole body of water would gather itself 
up, and shoot down some rock, and cut like a 
sword-blade into the still water below. We 
shall long remember that little, leaping, dan- 
cing branch of the Coquille, that runs from the 
Coast Mountains to the sea. 

Upon learning that we were approaching 
" Empire City," we attempted a hasty toilet, — 
as appropriate for entering a metropolis as cir- 
cumstances would permit, — but we were kindly 
informed that we might spare ourselves the 
trouble, as the place consisted at present of but 
a single house ; a carpenter having established 
himself there, and, with a far-seeing eye, given 
the place its name, and started a settlement by 
building his own dwelling, and a play-house in 
the woods for his little daughter. 

We spent one night in a myrtle-grove. The 
trees leaned gracefully together, and the whole 
grove for miles was made of beautiful arched 
aisles. Coming from our shaggy firs, and the 



174 YAQUINA. 

rough, undergrowth that is alwaj'S beneath 
them, to these smooth, glossy leaves, and clear, 
open spaces of fine grass, was like entering 
fairy-land, or the " good green wood " of the 
ballads. I looked for princes and lovers wan- 
dering among them, and felt quite transformed 
myself. The driver I regarded as a different 
man from that moment ; to think that he should 
show so much good taste as to draw up for the 
night in that lovely place. 

In coming from the mountain, we had to 
ride a good deal of the way without seeing 
where we were going ; and once we found our- 
selves with a great roof over our heads, hol- 
lowed out of the solid rock, and covered with 
dripping maiden's-hair. All the rock about was 
like flint, and worn into strange shapes by the 
water. 

One clay we were accompanied quite a dis- 
tance through the woods by a female chief, 
Yaquina. I think that she is a celebrated 
woman in Oregon, and that Yaquina Bay was 
named for her. She was mounted on a little 
pony, and riding along in a free and joyous, 
way, looking about at the green leaves and the 
sunshine. I thought of Victoria with her heavy 
crown, that gives her the sick headache, and 
wondered how she would like to exchange 
with her. 



GENIAL DWELLERS IN TEE WOODS. 175 

We were quite interested in some of the peo- 
ple we saw, one of them especially, — a man 
whose house had no windows. We felt at first 
as if we could not stop with him ; but he came 
out to our wagon, looking so bright and clean, 
and had such an air of welcome as he said, 
" We are not very well provided, but we are 
very accommodating," that we at once decided 
to stop, particularly as the driver said the 
horses could not possibly go enough farther to 
get to any better place that night. He ushered 
us in very hospitably, and looking round the 
room — the chairs being rather scarce — said, 
"There are plenty of seats — on the floor." I 
saw some books on a shelf, and, going to look at 
them, found " Mill's Logic," and " Tyndall on 
Sound," and several others, scientific and his- 
torical. We found him, as he said we should, 
eager to make us comfortable. He noticed that 
the baby did not look well, and went out into 
the woods, and cut down a little tree that he 
said would do her good, and urged us to take it 
with us. He said that he was generally called 
in by his neighbors, in case of sickness or acci- 
dent. He had learned to help himself in most 
ways, as he came there originally with only fifty 
cents in his pocket. 

Another old man, at the next stopping-place, 



176 GENIAL DWELLERS IN THE WOODS. 

made a beautiful picture, as lie sat inside his 
open door, in a great, rough, home-made arm- 
chair, with a black bear-skin for a pillow, — a 
large, strong man, with long, shining, silver 
hair. We were very much pleased to find that 
we were to spend the night there, he looked so 
interesting. All his talk was about fights with 
wild beasts and Indians, and cutting down the 
big trees, and making the terrible roads we had 
been over. There was a good deal of refinement 
and gentleness, too, about him. He had in his 
arms a dear little child. He had adopted her, 
he said, because his were all grown up. She 
seemed like a soft little bird, so timid and 
clinging. 

When we came to see our accommodations, 
we were delighted to find every thing so clean 
and agreeable. We expressed our pleasure to 
him, and he said, " Yes ; a woman, I think, will 
go a mile or two farther for a clean sheet; and 
even a man does not altogether like to be tucked 
into bed with a stranger ; " which suggests what 
the customs are there. 

Dec. 20, 1873. 

We were startled to learn, a few clays since, 
that one of our neighbors had been found dead, 
— a man about whom there had always been a 



OUR UNKNOWN NEIGHBOR. 177 

good deal of mystery in the village. He lived 
alone, and never spoke of any relations or 
friends. He was a man of very courteous man- 
ners, but on this point he would allow no ques- 
tions. There was no one to notify of his death, 
and nobody appeared to claim his property. 

The first time we ever saw him, he was riding 
in the woods, on a handsome horse, with a 
bright scarlet blanket. He looked so pictur- 
esque, and there was so much grace and dignity 
about him, that I felt as if he did not belong 
anywhere about here. It seemed as if he might 
have come riding out of some foreign land, or 
some distant age, — like a knight going to a 
tournament. 

When we came to know him, we could not 
help wondering what could induce him to live 
here. He was thought to be Southern, and it 
was generally supposed that some difficulties 
arising at the time of the war had brought him 
here. He seemed disposed to make the best of 
our dull life, and always had something that 
interested him to show us, — a new flower, or 
curious shell, or some pretty Indian child. 

The last time we saw him was Saturday night. 
It must have been only a few hours before his 
death, but he appeared in his usual fine health. 
The next we knew of him was Monday morning, 



178 WHALES. 

when some men who lived near us said that 
nothing had been seen of him since his light 
disappeared Saturday night. As he did not 
open his house, as usual, on Sunday, they said 
to themselves, " He does not like to be dis- 
turbed," and waited till Monday, when they 
went to the window ; and the dog inside, hear- 
ing the noise, came and tore down the curtain, 
and went back and sat down beside his master, 
where he lay on the bed, and licked his face ; 
and they saw that he was dead. He was tenderly 
buried by the people of the village, without 
religious ceremonies ; but they dropped little 
green branches into his grave in the way of the 
Free Masons. I was surprised at the delicacy of 
feeling shown in regard to his desire to remain 
unknown, rude curiosity concerning any thing 
peculiar being everywhere so common. 

May 20, 1874. 

This afternoon we went out a little farther 
than usual in our boat, and saw a herd of whales 
in the distance, — great free creatures, puffing 
and snorting, spouting and frolicking, together. 
The boatman said that a flap from one of their 
tails would send our boat clean out of the water, 
and turned hastily about, hallooing in the wild- 
est way, to keep them off. 



PET SEAL AND EAGLE. 179 

On our way back we passed some deserted 
buildings on a sandy point. We inquired about 
them, and were told that they were the com- 
mencement of a city, originally called " New 
York ; " but, having disappointed its founders, 
the Indian name of Alki (Ity and By) was given 
to it in derision. 

We saw in the woods near here some mag- 
nificent rhododendrons, ten or twelve feet tall, 
covered with clusters of rose-colored flowers. 

One of the boatmen has a pet seal that we 
sometimes take out in the boat with us. We 
put him occasionally into the water, feeling that 
he must be longing to go ; but he always stays 
near the boat, and comes back if we whistle to 
him, and seems quite companionable. Who 
would have believed that one of these cold sea 
creatures could ever have been enticed into such 
intimacy ? Our only idea of them, before this 
experience, had been of a little dark head here 
and there in the distance, in the midst of great 
wastes of water, where, as Lowell says, they — 

" Solemnly lift their faces gray, 
Making it yet more lonely." 

One of the captains we sailed with told us 
that he had at, one time a gray eagle he had 
tamed when young, that often took coasting- 



180 A MOURNING MOTHER. 

voyages with him, leaving the vessel occasion- 
ally, and returning to it, even when it had sailed 
many miles; never, by mistake, alighting on 
another craft instead of his. Sometimes, when 
out on a voyage to San Francisco, it would 
leave the vessel, and return to his house on 
Port Discovery Bay. 

Oct. 15, 1874. 

As we were passing along near the shore to- 
day, in our boat, we saw an Indian woman sit- 
ting alone on the beach, moaning, and dipping 
her hands continually in the water. Her canoe 
was drawn up beside her. We stopped, and 
asked her if any one was dead. She pointed 
to a square box * in the canoe, and said, " mika 
tenas" (my child). She said, afterwards, that 
she was as tall as I, and " Jiyas closhe " (so 
good) ! 

As the poor Indian mother looked round at 
the waves and the sky to comfort her, I thought, 
what is there, after all, that civilization can 
offer, beyond what is given by Nature alone, to 
every one in deepest need? 

Yeomans, our old Port Angeles friend, called 
on us to-day. Every year since we left there, 

1 The crouching position, the favorite one of the Indians 
in life, is preserved by them in the disposition of their dead. 



VISIT FROM TEOMANS. \ 181 

he has included us in his annual visit to the 
Seattle tribes. Each time we see him I think 
must be the last, he looks so very old ; but every 
autumn brings him back, apparently unchanged. 
He seems to alter as slowly as the old firs about 
him. I am surprised always at his light tread ; 
he bears so little weight on his feet, but glides 
along as if he were still in the woods, and 
would not have a leaf rustle. 



XII. 

Puget Sound to San Francisco. — A Model Vessel. — The Cap- 
tain's Relation to his Men.— Rough Water. —Beauty of 
the Sea. — Golden-Gate Entrance. — San Francisco Streets. 

— Santa Barbara. — Its Invalids. — Our Spanish Neighbors. 

— The Mountains and the Bay. — Kelp. — Old Mission. — 
A Sirnoorn. — The Channel Islands. — A New Type of 
Chinamen. —An Old Spanish House. 

San Francisco, March 20, 1875. 

WE reached here last night, after a rough 
voyage from Puget Sound. We had all 
our worst weather first. After three or four 
days came a bright, clear morning, and the cap- 
tain called me on deck to see the sunrise. It 
was all so changed, so beautiful, so joyous, — 
all around the exquisite green light flashing 
through the waves as they broke ; and as far off 
as we could see, in every direction, the water 
leaping and tossing itself into spray. A strong 
wind had taken the vessel in charge : and it flew 
swiftly over the water, with no changes needed, 
no altering of sails, no orders of any kind, and 
nobody seemed to be about. The captain fixed 

182 



A MODEL VESSEL. 183 

me a hammock in a sail ; and I lay there hour 
after hour, with no company but the warm, 
bright sunshine straying over the deck. I felt 
as if it were an enchanted vessel, on which I 
was travelling alone. 

Cleopatra's barge could not have been more 
carefully kept. When the men came out to 
their daily work, all their spare moments were 
spent in polishing and cleaning every little tar- 
nished or dingy spot. At first it used to seem 
to me like a wanton risk of life, with the vessel 
rearing and plunging so that we did not dare 
to stir on deck, to see them climb the tall masts, 
and cling there, scraping and oiling them, to 
bring out the veining of the wood. Perhaps it 
was partly as a discipline in steadiness, that 
they were directed to do it, — to get used to 
working at such a height. What a contrast to 
the tawdriness of the steamers we had been 
accustomed to, to see every thing about us 
made beautiful by exquisite neatness, done 
chiefly, too, for their own eyes! I saw, then, 
why the sunshine was so pleasant on the deck ; 
it was because there was nothing about the 
vessel out of keeping with the pure beauty of 
nature. I felt safer, too, to think how all 
things, small and great, conformed to the laws 
of Heaven. 



184- THE CAPTAIN'S RELATION TO HIS MEN. 

One clay I asked the captain if he had many 
of the same men with him as on the last voyage 
we took with him. I remembered his pointing 
ont to me then the fair, honest face of a young 
Swedish sailor at the wheel. He said most of 
his men made many voyages with him. I spoke 
of another captain, who told us his men were 
almost all new every time. He said that was 
generally the master's fault ; that a captain 
should not speak to his men just the same in 
fair weather and in foul. I looked with inter- 
est, afterward, to see his management of them, 
and found that, while every thing went on 
smoothly, he took pains to converse with them, 
and to become somewhat acquainted with each 
man. Then, in emergencies, his brief, clear di- 
rections were immediately comprehended, and 
promptly obeyed. I began to understand the 
secret of his short voyages (for his vessel had 
the reputation of being the fastest sailer be- 
tween San Francisco and the Sound) : it was 
partly from his management of the ship, and 
partly from his management of the men. 

We started in a snow-storm, and at first 
every thing seemed to be against us. He had 
told us that March was not generally a very 
quiet month on the water. We took a tug-boat 
to tow us out to the entrance of the Straits ; 



THE CAPTAIN'S VIGILANCE. 185 

but, as the weather grew continually worse, the 
steamer was obliged to leave us, with wind 
dead ahead, and against that we had to beat 
out. As soon as we had made Cape Flattery, 
the wind changed, and became what would 
have been a good wind for getting out, but was 
just the opposite of what we wanted for going 
down the coast. These reverses the captain 
received with unruffled serenity; although he 
dearly delights in his quick trips, and was 
ready to seize with alacrity the least breath in 
his favor. After all, he made one of his best 
voyages, by the help of the strong, steady wind 
that drove him on at the last. It was perhaps 
as much, however, from his vigilance in watch- 
ing when there was so little to take advantage 
of, and seizing all the little bits of help it was 
possible to get, as it was from the great help 
of that powerful wind; for other vessels that 
started with us, and even days before us, have 
not come in yet, and they all had the great 
wind alike. 

R ventured to inquire of the captain one 

day, when we were beating about the mouth of 
the Straits, as to the feasibility of going into 
Neeah Bay, while it was yet possible to do so ; 
but the captain said he preferred to beat about, 
and then he was ready to take advantage of 



186 . ROUGH WATER. 

the first chance in his favor, which he might 
lose if he were in shelter. 

One clay it was more than I could enjoy. 
The wind roared so loud, and the sound of the 
waves was so heavy, that I retreated to my 
berth, and lay down ; but I could not keep my 
mind off the thought of how deep the water 
was under us. After a while I went on deck 
and sat there again, and the vessel began to 
plunge so that it seemed as if it were trying 
to stand upon one end. I felt so frightened that 
I thought I would speak to the captain, and 
ask him if he ever knew a lumber-vessel to tip 
over ; and if I dared I would suggest that he 
should carry a little less sail. I knew that he 
was once on a vessel that turned bottom up- 
ward in the Straits, and he was left on the over- 
turned hull for three days, in a snow-storm, be- 
fore help came to him. I spoke to him, and he 
did not give me much of an answer ; but, a little 
while after, he came to me, and said, " Are jom 
able to go to the forward part of the ship with 
me ? I should like to have you, if you can." 
So he helped me along to the bow, where it 
seemed almost too frightful to go, and said, 
" Kneel down ; " and knelt down by me, and 
said, " Look under the ship." It was one of the 
most beautiful sights I ever saw, — such a 



BEAUTY OF THE SEA. 187 

height of foam, and rainbows over it. The 
dark water beside it seemed to be full of little, 
sharp, shining needles. I suppose it was mov- 
ing so quickly that made the elongated drops 
appear so. Then he took me to the other side, 
that was in shadow ; and there the water was 
whirled into the most beautiful shapes, stand- 
ing out distinct from each other, from the swift- 
ness of the motion, that held them poised, like 
exquisite combinations of snowflakes, only more 
airy. 

Presently he said, " Men don't often speak of 
these things to each other, but I feel the beauty 
of it. Nights when the vessel is moving so 
fast, I come and watch here for hours and 
hours, and dream over it." When I thought 
about it afterward, I wondered how he could 
know that the way to answer my fear was to 
show me what was so beautiful. I was not 
afraid any more, whatever the vessel did. 

Those three days and nights of lonely watch- 
ing, floating about in the Straits, must have 
been a great experience to him, and made him 
different from what he would otherwise have 
been ; certainly different from most men. 

Before sunrise, yesterday morning, we passed 
the " Seal Rocks ; " as the light just began to 
reveal a little of the dark, dreamy hills on each 



188 GOLDEN-GATE ENTRANCE. 

side of the long, beautiful entrance to the har- 
bor. A flood of light filled it as we entered, 
and it must have looked just as it did when it 
was first named the " Golden Gate." All along, 
for miles, the water throws itself up into the 
air, and falls in fountains on the rocky shore. 
I cannot conceive of a more beautiful harbor 
in the world; and, as we were two or three 
hours in coming from the sea up to the city, we 
had time enough to enjoy it. 

The southern headland of the entrance is 
Point Lobos (Punta de los Lobos, Point of 
Wolves) ; the northern, Point Bonita (Beauti- 
ful Point). 

Makch 25, 1875. 

We could never have stepped out of our 
wilderness into a stranger city than this. From 
the variety of foreign names and faces that I 
see in the streets, I should think I were travel- 
ling over the whole world. On one side of us 
lives a Danish family, on the other a French. 
I walk along and look up at the signs,— 
" Scandinavian Society ; " " Yang Tzy Associa- 
tion of Shanghae ; " " Nuevo Continente Restau* 
rant Mejicano ; " " Angelo BefTa, Helvetia Ex- 
change," with the white cross and plumed hat 
of Switzerland. One street is all Chinese, with 
shiny-haired women, and little mandarins with 



BAN FRANCISCO STREETS. 189 

long cues of braided red silk. The babies seem 
to be dressed in imitation of the idol in the 
temple ; their tight caps have the same tinsel 
and trimmings, and the resemblance their little 
dry faces bear to it is very curious. 

Next to "Tung Wo," "Sun Loy," and 
"Kum Lum," come " Witkowski," "Bukofski," 
" Rowminski," — who keep Russian caviar, etc. 
Some day, when we feel a little tired of our or- 
dinary food, we think of trying the caviar, or 
perhaps a gelatinous bird's nest, for variety. 

Besides the ordinary residents, we meet 
many sailors from the hundreds of vessels 
always in the harbor, — Greeks, Lascars, Ma- 
lays, and Kanakas. Their picturesque costumes 
and Oriental faces add still more to the foreign 
look of the place. 

In the midst of the greatest rush and confu- 
sion of one of the principal business streets, 
stands a man with an electrical machine, bawl- 
ing in stentorian tones, " Nothing like' it to 
steady the nerves, and strengthen the heart," — 
ready, for a small fee, to administer on the spot 
a current of greater or less intensity to whoever 
may desire it. The contrast is most ludicrous 
between the need that undoubtedly exists for 
some such quieting influence, and the utter in- 
efficacy of it, if applied, under such circum- 
tances. 



190 SANTA BARBARA. 

Oct. 20, 1875. 

We have just returned from Santa Barbara. 
How buoyant the air seems, and how brisk the 
people, after our languid, dreamy life there ! I, 
who went there in robust health, spent six 
months in bed, for no other reason, that I could 
understand, than the influence of the climate. 
Perhaps, on homoeopathic principles, as Santa 
Barbara makes sick people well, it makes well 
people sick. A physician that I have seen since 
coining here tells me that he went there him- 
self for his own health, and was so much affect- 
ed by the general atmosphere of sickness, that 
he was obliged to return. It is a depressing 
sight, certainly, to see so many feeble, consump- 
tive-looking people about, as we did there. 
Where we lived I think it was also malarious, 
from the ester o that winds like a snake about 
the lowlands near the bay. The favorite part 
of the city is near the foot-hills. It is probably 
more healthful there, but we cannot live with- 
out seeing at least one little silver line of the 
sea. So we took up our abode in the midst of 
the Spanish population, near the water. 

We found it very difficult to get any one to 
help us in our work, although we had supposed 
that in the midst of poor people we should be 
favorably situated in that respect. We were 



OUR SPANISH NEIGHBORS. 191 

told, however, that the true Castilian, no matter 
how poor, never works; that we might perhaps 
find some one among the Mexicans to assist us. 
Our neighbors were quite interesting to 
watch, and we were pleased with the simplicity 
of their lives. They had no apparent means of 
support, unless it might be lassoing and taming 
some wild mustangs, which they were some- 
times engaged in doing ; but this seemed to be 
more of a recreation than a business with them. 
They were never harassed nor hurried about 
any thing. They lived mostly outside their 
little dark dwelling, only seeking it at noon for 
a siesta. In the morning they placed a mat 
under the trees, and put the babies down naked 
to play on it, shaking down the leaves for play- 
things. Sometimes they cut a great piece of 
meat into narrow strips, and hung it all over 
our fence to dry. This dried meat, and melons, 
constituted a large part of their food. The old 
mother was called Gracia, but she could never 
in her youth have been more graceful than now. 
She was as picturesque still as she could ever 
have been, and perfectly erect. She wore a 
little black cap, like a priest's cap, on the top 
of her head, and her long gray hair floated out 
from it over her shoulders ; and, with her black 
mantle thrown as gracefully about her as any 



192 OUR SPANISH NEIGHBORS. 

young person could have worn it, we used to 
see her starting out every morning to enjoy 
herself abroad. She appeared one morning at 
our window, before we were up, with her arms 
full of roses covered with dew, eager to give 
them to us while they were so fresh. 

We noticed her sometimes out in the yard, 
preparing some of the family food, by the aid 
of a curious flat stone supported on three legs, 
and a stone pestle or roller, — a very primitive 
arrangement. Kneeling down upon the ground, 
she placed her corn, or Chili peppers — or what- 
ever article she wished to grind — upon the stone ; 
and, taking the hand-stone, she rolled it vigor- 
ously back and forth over the flat surface, 
crushing up the material, which fell off at the 
lower end into a dish below. We saw her 
making tomales, composed of bruised green 
corn, — crushed by the process just described, 
— mixed with chopped meat, and seasoned with 
Chili peppers or other pungent flavoring, and 
made up into slender rolls, each enveloped in 
green-corn leaves, tied at the ends, and baked 
in the ashes, — resulting in a very savory article 
of food. 

Our only New-England acquaintances at 
Santa Barbara had evidently modified very 
much their ideas of living. We found them 



THE MOUNTAINS AND THE BAY. 193 

with bare floors, a great bunch of pampas grass, 
and a guitar hanging against the wall, in true 
Spanish fashion ; the room being otherwise most- 
ly empty. 

We had on one side the dark Santa Ynez 
Mountains, and on the other the sea. The 
mountains are not very high but bold in their 
outlines ; and the number of crags and ravines 
gives them a beautiful play of light and shadow. 
Very early one morning I saw a great gray 
eagle fly overhead, back to his home in their 
dark recesses. Some of the slopes are covered 
with grape-vines, and some with olive-trees. Far 
up in the hollows can be seen the little white 
houses of the people who keep the bee-ranches. 
They live up so high because the flowers last 
longer there. The mountains form a semicircle 
on one side of the town; on the other is the 
beach. An immense bed of kelp, extending for 
miles and miles along the shore, forms the most 
beautiful figures, rising and falling as it floats 
on the water, — so gigantic, and at the same 
time so graceful. It is of every beautiful shade 
of pale yellow and brown. In winter the gales 
sometimes drive it shoreward in such vast quan- 
tities that vessels are compelled to anchor out- 
side of it. 

There is an old mission there, built in the 



194 OLD MISSION. — A SIMOOM. 

Moorish style, where all visitors are hospitably 
received by the Franciscan friars in charge. 
This mission, like all those we have seen, has 
a choice situation, sheltered from wind, and 
with good soil about it. The old monks knew 
how to make themselves comfortable. Their 
cattle roamed over boundless pastures, herded 
by mounted vaqueros ; their grain-fields ripened 
under cloudless skies ; their olive - orchards, 
carefully watered and tended by their Indian 
subjects, yielded rich returns. 

We made the acquaintance of a gentleman 
from Morocco, who says that the climate there 
is almost the same as that of Santa Barbara. I 
suppose the simoom we had there in the summer 
was a specimen of it. A fierce, hot wind blew 
from the Mojave desert. There was no possi- 
bility of comfort in the house, nor out of it. 
We could escape the storm of wind and dust 
by going in, but there was still the choking 
feeling of the air. The residents of the place 
could say nothing in defence of it, — only that 
did not occur often. 

We are tjld that on the 17th of June, 1859, 
there was much more of a genuine simoom. So 
hot a blast of air swept over the town as to nil the 
people with terror. This burning wind raised 
dense clouds of fine dust. Birds dropped dead 



THE MESA. — CHANNEL ISLANDS. 195 

from the trees. The people shut themselves 
up in their thick adobe houses. The mer- 
cury rapidly rose to 133 degrees, and continued 
so for three hours. Trees were blighted, and 
gardens ruined. 

Sailors approaching the coast in a fog can 
recognize the Santa Barbara Channel by the 
smell of bitumen which floats on the water. 
Some of the old navigators thought their ves- 
sels were on fire when they noticed it. It gives 
a luminous appearance to the water at night. 

On one side of Santa Barbara is a great 
table-land, called the Mesa, where there is al- 
ways a sea-breeze that blows across fields of 
grain and fragrant grass. That would be a 
beautiful place to live, but there is no water. 
The experiment of artesian wells is about 
being tried. 

From the Mesa we looked off to the channel 
islands, — Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, 
and Anacapa, — bold, rocky, and picturesque. 
Anacapa was formerly a great resort for the 
seal and otter ; and the natives from Alaska 
came down to hunt them, and collected large 
quantities of their valuable skins. The island 
is of sandstone, all honeycombed with cavities 
of different sizes, sometimes making beauti- 
ful arches. There is no water on this island, 



196 SANTA BARBARA CLIMATE. 

and only cactus and coarse grass grow there. 
Others of the group have wood and water, and 
settlements of fishermen. On some of them, 
interesting historical relics have been discovered, 
— supposed to be the remains of a temple to 
the sun, with idols and images. There are also 
beautiful fossils and corals and abalone shells. 

It was hard to make up our minds to leave 
so lovely a place ; but as I looked back, the last 
morning, to fix the picture of it in my mind, I 
saw the little white clouds that come before the 
hot wind, rising above the mountains, and was 
glad that we were going. Two immense col- 
umns of smoke rose out of the canons, and 
stood over the place, like genii. In the dry 
weather it seems that the mountains are almost 
always on fire, which modifies what is called 
the natural climate of Santa Barbara, so as to 
make it very uncomfortable. Its admirers must 
come from some worse place, — probably often 
from the interior ; no one from Puget Sound 
ever praises it. We met several families from 
that region ; and they were all anxious to get 
back to the clear mountain atmosphere of their 
northern climate, which is as equable as that of 
Santa Barbara, though far different in character. 

We saw there some Chinese quite unlike any 
that we have met before. We have heard that 



A NEW TYPE OF CHINAMEN. 197 

most of those who come to the Pacific Coast 
are of an inferior kind, chiefly Tartars. There 
we saw some quite handsome ones, who had 
more of an Arab look, and had also elegant 
manners, — one, especially, who had a little 
office near us. On the birthday of the Emperor 
of China, his room was ornamented with a 
picture of Confucius, before which he burned 
scented wood ; and hanging over it was an air- 
castle, with the motto, " God is Love." 

We visited one day an interesting-looking 
old house, near our quarter of the town, to see 
if we could live in it. It was one of the finest 
there before the place became Americanized, 
and belonged to an old Spanish don. It stands 
in the centre of spacious and beautiful grounds, 
and the avenue leading to it is bordered with 
olive-trees, which were in bloom. There was 
a curious, delicate fragrance in the air, quite 
new to me, which I attributed to them. It was 
as different from all other odors, as their color 
is from that of all other trees. They have a 
little greenish blossom, something like a daphne, 
and the foliage is of beautiful shades of gray- 
green, from an almost black to light silvery 
color. They seem like old Spaniards them- 
selves, they have such an ancient, reserved look. 
Two magnificent pepper-trees, with their light, 



198 AN OLD SPANISH HOUSE. 

graceful foliage trailing from the branches, stand 
near the door. The house is shut in with dark 
heavp porches on all sides, and covered with 
vines. The windows are in such deep recesses, 
owing to the great thickness of the walls of the 
house, that the rooms were but dimly lighted, al- 
though it was early in the afternoon. Some of 
the windows are of stained glass, and others 
of ground glass, to lessen the light still more. 
It is an adobe house ; and the walls are so damp 
that I gave up all idea of living in it, as soon 
as I laid my hand on them. The Spaniards, I 
see, all build their houses on a plan that origi- 
nated in a hot country, where the idea of com- 
fort was all of coolness and shade. This house, 
and the one opposite where we lived, are cov- 
ered with passion-flowers. Near the latter are 
two dark evergreen-trees, — the Santa Cruz 
spruce, — trimmed so as to be very stiff and 
straight, standing like dark wardens before 
the door. There is a hedge of pomegranate, 
with its flame-like flowers, which seem to be 
filled with light. The pepper-tree abounds in 
Santa Barbara, and the eucalyptus is being 
planted a good deal. It has a special power to 
absorb malaria from the air, and makes un- 
healthy places wholesome. 



XIII. 

Our Aerie. —The Bay and the Hills. —The Little Gnome. — 
Earthquake. — Temporary Residents. — The Trade-Wind. 

— Seal-Rocks. — Farallon Islands. — Exhilarating Air. — 
Approach of Summer. — Centennial Procession. — Suicides. 

— Mission Dolores. — Father Pedro Font and his Expedi- 
tion. — The Mission Indians. — Chinese Feast of the Dead. 

— Curious Weather. 

San Francisco, Oct. 30, 1875. 

TTTE have found a magnificent situation. 
VV Our little house is perched on such a 
height, that every one wonders how we ever 
discovered it. The site of the city was origi- 
nally a collection of immense sandhills, on the 
sides and tops of which the houses were built, 
many of them before the streets were laid out 
and graded. When the grades were finally de- 
termined, and the hills cut through, — as some 
of them were, — houses were often left perched 
far above, on the edge of a cliff, and almost as 
inaccessible as a feudal castle. I feel as if 
ours might be an eagle's nest, and enjoy the 
wildness and solitude of it. So does our 

199 



200 TEE BAY AND TEE EILLS. 

Scotch shepherd dog, who has been used to 
lonely places. Sometimes, just as the sun is 
rising, we see him sitting out on the sandhills, 
looking about with such a contented expres- 
sion that it seems as if he smiled. He opens 
his mouth to drink in the wind, as if it were a 
delicious draught to him. 

The hills are covered with sage-brush, full of 
little twittering birds. My bed is between 
two windows, and they fly across from one to 
the other, without minding me at all. Oppo- 
site is Alcatraz, a fortified island, but very 
peaceful-looking, the waves breaking softly all 
around it. It has still the Spanish name of the 
white pelicans with which it used to be cov- 
ered. The commander of the fort died since 
we came here, and was carried across the water, 
with music, to Angel Island, to be buried. 

Across the bay is a low line of hills, with 
softly rounded outlines. They are of pale rus- 
set color, from the red earth, and thin, dried 
grass, that covers them. Farther to the north 
is Mount Tamalpias, with sharper outlines. 

Nov. 8, 1875. 

The China boys generally refuse to come out 
here to live with us, saying it is " too far, too 
far." The unsettled appearance of this part of 



EARTHQUAKE. 201 

the city does not please them. To-day we suc- 
ceeded -in securing a small one. He is a curi- 
ous-looking little creature, with a high pointed 
head, stiff, black hair, and small, sparkling eyes. 
He seems like a little gnome, and might have 
been living in the bowels of the earth, in mines 
and caverns, with black coal and bright jewels 
about him. Before he would agree to come, he 
said he must go and consult the idol in the 
temple. He burned little fragrant sticks before 
him ; but how he divined what his pleasure 
might be, I could not tell. 

We hesitated about taking him, considering 
his very stunted appearance ; but he said, " Me 
heap smart," and that settled it. " Heap " must 
be a word the Chinese have picked up at the 
mines. It is in constant requisition in any 
attempt to converse with them. 

Last night we had a heavy shock of earth- 
quake. How different it is from merely reading 
that the crust of the earth is thin, and that 
there is fire under it, to feel it tremble under 
your feet ! I was glad to have one thing more 
made real to me, that before meant nothing. It 
was a strange, deep trembling, as if every thing 
were sliding away from us. 



202 TEMPORARY RESIDENTS. 

Nov. 18, 1875. 

It gives one a lonesome feeling to see how 
many people here lead unsettled lives, looking 
upon some other place' as their home. Even 
the children, hearing so much talk about the 
East, seem to have an idea that they really 
belong somewhere else. One of our little neigh- 
bors said to me, " I have never been home ; " 
although she, and all her grown-up brothers and 
sisters, were born and brought up here. Many 
of the customs of the place are adapted to a 
temporary way of living. In most parts of the 
city, it would be hard to find a street without 
signs of " Furnished rooms to let." Besides in- 
numerable restaurants, a flying kitchen travels 
about, with every thing cooking as it goes along, 
and clean-looking men, with white aprons, to 
serve the food ; one ringing a bell, and looking 
out in every direction, to see what is wanted. 

The numerous windmills, for raising water, 
give the city a lively look. The wind keeps 
them always in motion. The constant whirring 
of the wheels, and the general breezy look of 
things, distinguish this place from all others 
that I have seen. Sir Francis Drake, entering 
the bay nearly three hundred years ago, refers, 
with great delight, to "a franke wind," that 
took him " into a safe and good baye." There 



SEAL-ROCKS. 203 

was, for a long time, some doubt as to which 
of several ports he made. I think that mention 
of the wind settles it. The identical wind has 
been blowing with undiminished vigor ever 
since. In summer (the time he was here), 
it will carry a vessel in against the strongest 
tide. 

The city is built mostly of wood. The ab- 
sence of foliage, and the neutral color of the 
houses, give the streets a dull gray look, here 
and there redeemed by the scarlet geranium, 
which, if not a native, is most thoroughly natu- 
ralized, — it grows so sturdily, even in the 
poorest yards. 

April 30, 1876. 

We had a long ride out to the Seal-Rocks, 
past great wavy hills, with patches of gold, 
brighter than the dandelions and buttercups are 
at home. This was the eschcholtzia, or Cali- 
fornia poppy. Occasionally we passed great 
tracts of lupine. The lowland was a sea of blue 
iris. 

Suddenly, as we surmounted a height, the 
ocean rolled in before us, line after line of 
breakers, on a broad beach. "When we reached 
Point Lobos we saw the two great rocks, far 
out in the water, covered with brown seals that 
lay in the sun like flocks of sheep, and little 



204 FARALLON ISLANDS. 

slippery, shining ones all the time crawling up 
out of the water, and dropping back again. As 
the vessels pass out of the bay, they go near 
enough to hear them bark ; but nothing fright- 
ens them away, nor discomposes them in the 
least, although they are only a few miles from 
the city, and have a great many visitors. They 
are protected by law from molestation. 

We looked off to the Farallon Islands, which 
are one of the chief landmarks for vessels ap- 
proaching the Golden Gate. There was formerly 
a settlement of Russians there, who hunted the 
seal and the otter. These islands are still a 
great resort for seals, also for comorants and 
sea-gulls ; and the large speckled eggs of the 
birds are gathered in quantities, and brought 
to the San Francisco market for sale. They 
were called by the Spaniards " Farallons de los 
Frayles " (Islands of the Friars), farallon being 
a sharp-pointed island. 

There is a marvellous exhilaration in the air. 
The enthusiastic Bayard Taylor said, that, in 
in his first drive round the bay, he felt like 
Julius Csesar, Milo of Crotana, and Gen. Jack- 
son, rolled into one. It is an acknowledged 
fact, that both men and animals can work harder 
and longer here, without apparent injury or 
fatigue, than anywhere on the Eastern coast. 



APPROACH OF SUMMER. 205 

We have heard it suggested that the abundant 
actinic rays in the dry, cloudless atmosphere 
are the cause of this invigoration, and also of 
the unusual brilliancy of the flowers. 

June 1, 1876. 

The only way in which we know that sum- 
mer is coming is by the more chilling winds, 
the increased dust, the tawny color of the hills, 
and the general dying look of things. Every 
thing is bare, sunny, and sandy. 

We are surrounded with great wastes of 
sand, which the wind drives against the house, 
so that it seems always like a storm. Some- 
times, when I sit at work at the window, a 
gopher comes out of the sandhill, and sits 
down outside it. His company makes me feel 
still more remote from all civilized things. 

July 4, 1876. 

We had a splendid Centennial procession. 
Things that we imitate at home are all real here. 
Instead of having our own people dressed up 
in foreign costume, we have Italians, French, 
Swiss, Russians, Germans, Chinese, Turks, etc., 
all ready for any occasion. The newspapers 
mentioned as a remarkable fact, that there 
were no suicides for a week beforehand ; every 



206 CENTENNIAL PROCESSION. 

one seemed to have something to look forward 
to. 

The night before the celebration, the French 
residents built up a great arch, as high as the 
highest buildings, with fine decorations, for the 
procession to pass under. Some doubt was ex- 
pressed about the Germans liking to pass be- 
neath the French arch ; so three thousand Ger- 
mans, to show their good- will,* went and sung 
the Marseillaise under it. 

The Jews have the handsomest church in 
San Francisco, which they decorated with the 
greatest enthusiasm, and had Centennial ser- 
vices, in which they said that they, of all people 
in the world, ought to appreciate America, as, 
before they came here, they were outcasts every- 
where, while here they were unmolested and 
prosperous. 

I liked best in the procession the Highland- 
ers, who were real Scotchmen, in plaids, and 
bonnets with eagle feathers. Every one had a 
claymore by his side, and a thistle on his breast ; 
and there were pipers playing on bagpipes to 
lead them. 

There are a great many Germans in San 
Francisco, and the brewers had a car dressed 
with yellow barley and other ripe grains. The 
great fat men looked so full of enjoyment, it 



SUICIDES. 207 

was really picturesque to see them, under the 
nodding grain. For the first time in my life I 
appreciated them, as I saw- how poorly a thin 
man would convey the idea of comfort. There 
are a good many Italian fishermen here too. 
They are always just fit for processions, without 
any alteration whatever; their pretty green 
boat " Venezia," and their Captain Caesar Celso 
Morena, seem made for it. They had Roman 
guards, in golden scale armor. The California 
Jaegers with their wild brown faces, that 
seemed to transport us to the great hot plains 
where they herd and lasso the half-tamed ani- 
mals, walked too in the procession ; and the 
baby camel, born lately in San Francisco, a 
great pet. They were led by the silver cor- 
net band, whose music was exquisitely clear 
and sweet. 

Aug. 2, 1876. 

In this homeless city, built upon sandhills, 
and continual^ desolated by winds, it is no 
wonder that the blue bay looks attractive, espe- 
cially to any one thrust aside in the continual 
vicissitudes of this unsettled life. The first 
news we heard, on our return from Santa Bar- 
bara, was that Ralston, the great banker, and 
one of the chief favorites in social life, had 
sought the calm of its still depths as better 



208 SUICIDES. 

than any thing life could offer. How serenely 
the water lay in the sunshine, as we looked at 
it, hearing this news, which had stirred the city 
to its utmost ! Here all secrets are guarded, all 
perplexities end. The passion for suicide seeks 
mostly this pathway, though there is an unpre- 
cedented number of intentional deaths of all 
kinds. 

This morning's paper records the suicide of 
a Frenchman, who half reconciled me to his 
view, by the cheerful, intelligent way in which 
hie spoke. He left a letter stating that he died 
with no ill feeling toward any one, and full of 
faith in God as a Father ; that he did not con- 
sider that he was to blame for what he was 
about to do, as he had tried in vain to get work, 
— probably because he was wholly deaf. He 
made so little fuss about what almost every one 
would have considered a terrible calamity, — 
that his life should end in this way, — that it 
seemed a pity it could not otherwise have been 
made known what kind of a man he was. He 
gave a little account of himself, beginning, " I 
was born in the province of Haute Vienne, in 
France, and have lived mostly at the mines," 
going on to speak as quietly of what he was 
about to do, as he might if he were going to 
move from one town to another, not having sue- 



SUICIDES. 209 

ceeded in the first ; ending by saying, " I have 
taken the poison, — an acid taste, but not dis- 
agreeable." He made only one request, — that 
a package of old letters should be laid on his 
breast, and buried with him. A valuable mem- 
ber of society might have been saved, if the re- 
sult in his case could have been the same as 
with a man we knew in Santa Barbara, who, be- 
coming discouraged by continual rheumatism, 
combined with poverty, took a large dose of 
strychnine, with suicidal intent, but, to his as- 
tonishment, was entirely cured of his rheuma- 
tism ; and the notoriety he acquired presently 
procured him an abundance of work. 

In the winter a man who called himself Pro- 
fessor Blake, a " mind-reader," gave some ex- 
hibitions of his power, which were considered 
wonderful. It might have been better for him, 
however, not to know what people thought, as 
it proved. A few weeks ago a man was dis- 
covered dead, with this letter. beside him: "I 
die of a weary and a heavy heart, but of a sound 
mind. If there should be one or two persons 
to whom I should be known, let them, out of 
charity to the living, withhold their knowledge. 
Should my eyes be open, close them, that I 
may not chance, even in death, to see any more 
of this hated world." Notwithstanding his 



210 MISSION DOLORES. 

wish, of course every effort was made to find 
out who he was ; and it proved to be this " mind- 
reader." 

These cases are very depressing to think of; 
only that it makes one feel more certain of 
another life, to see how unfinished and unsatis- 
factory some things are here. 

Sept. 6, 1876. 

I have found two beautiful places to visit, — 
the old Spanish graveyard of the Mission Dolo- 
res, and Lone Mountain Cemetery. They have 
long, deep grass, and bright, exquisite flowers. 
On the waste tracks about the cemetery, I can 
still find the fragrant little yerba buena (good 
herb), from which the Spanish Fathers named 
the spot where San Francisco now stands, in 
the primitive times, long before gold was dis- 
covered. The cross on the summit of Lone 
Mountain, erected by the Franciscan friars, is 
quite impressive from its height and size. It is 
seen from all parts of the city. 

The Mission Dolores (Mission of our Lady 
of Sorrow) is south of the city, sheltered from 
the wind, with a clear stream flowing near. 
The fathers displayed their customary shrewd- 
ness in the selection of this situation. The 
bleak sandhills to the north they left for the 
future city, and settled themselves in this pleas- 



FATHER PEDRO FONT. 211 

ant valley. The pioneer missionary of Northern 
California — Father Junipero Serra, that rigor- 
ous old Spaniard who used to beat his breast 
with stones — established himself here, with his 
Franciscan monks, in the fall of 1776. His old 
church is still standing, — an adobe building, 
with earthen floor, the walls and ceiling covered 
with rude paintings of saints and angels. 

The Presidio of San Francisco was estab- 
lished in the spring preceding, by a colony sent 
out by the Viceroy of Mexico, accompanied by 
a military command. Father Pedro Font came 
with the expedition. He was a scientific man, 
and recorded his observations of the country 
and the people. Just before starting, a mass 
was sung for their happy journey, to the Most 
Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, whom they chose 
for their patroness, together with the Archan- 
gel Michael and their Father Saint Francis. 

When they reached the vicinity of the Gila 
River, the governors of several of the rancherias 
came out to meet them, with the alcalde, and a 
body of Pimas Indians, mounted on horses, 
who presented them with the scalps of several 
Apaches they had slain the day before. At the 
next stopping-place along the river, they were 
met by about a thousand Indians, who were 
very hospitable, and made a great shed of 



212 FATHER PEDRO FONT. 

green boughs for them, in which to pass the 
night. 

Father Pedro observed that the country must 
formerly have been inhabited by a different 
race, as the ground was strewn with fragments 
of painted earthenware, which the Pimas did 
not understand making. He saw also the ruins 
of an ancient building, with walls four and six 
feet thick. On the east and west sides were 
round openings, through which, according to 
the Indian traditions, the prince who lived 
there used to salute the rising and setting sun. 

The company travelled on, singing masses, 
and resting by the way, until they reached what 
Father Pedro called " a miracle of Nature, the 
port of ports" (San Francisco Bay). He as- 
cended a table-land, that ended in a steep white 
rock, to admire what he calls the "delicious 
view," — including the bay and its islands, and 
the ocean, with the Farallons in the distance, 
of which he made a sketch. He mentioned 
Angel Island, which still bears that name. The 
commandant planted a cross on the steep white 
rock, as the symbol of possession, and also at 
Point Reyes (Point of Kings), and selected the 
table-land for the site of the Presidio. Father 
Font explored the country about the bay, and 
made some surveys. He noticed some Indians 



CHRISTIANIZING THE INDIANS. 213 

with launches made of tules (bulrushes), in 
which they navigated the streams. 

It would have been fortunate for the Indians 
if all the priests sent among them had been of 
as gentle a spirit as Father Pedro. He says, in 
his account of this expedition, that they re- 
ceived him everywhere with demonstrations of 
joy, with dancing and singing. But, some years 
after, we hear that the soldiers were sent out 
from the Presidio to lasso the Indians. They 
were brought in like wild beasts, immediately 
baptized, and their Christianization commenced. 
Kotzebue, one of the early Russian explorers, 
says that in his time (1824) he saw them at 
Santa Clara driven into the church like a flock 
of sheep, by an old ragged Spaniard, armed 
with a stick. Some of the more humane priests 
complained bitterly of this violent method of 
converting the heathen, and insisted that all 
the Indians who had been brought in by force 
should be restored " to their gentile condition." 

In the old Mission of Santa Barbara, we saw 
some of the frightful pictures considered so 
very effective in converting them. One special 
painting, representing in most vivid colors the 
torments of hell, was said of itself alone to have 
led to hosts of conversions ; but a picture of 
paradise, in the same church, which was very 



214 THE MISSIONS. 

subdued in its treatment and coloring, had 
failed to produce any effect. 

The services of the Indians belonged for life 
to the missions to which they were attached. 
They were taught many useful things. They 
watered and kept the gardens and fields of 
grain, and tended the immense herds of cattle 
that roamed over the hills. Traders came to the 
coast to buy hides and tallow from the ranches 
and the missions, and the product of their 
fields. For seventy years, these old monks, 
supported by Spain, were the rulers of Califor- 
nia. Spain's foreign and colonial troubles, 
however, led her to appropriate to other pur- 
poses the " Pious Fund " by which the missions 
were maintained. Jealousy of their growing 
power, and revolutions in Mexico, hastened 
their downfall. The discovery of gold in 1848 
introduced the element which was to prove 
their final destruction. 

It is a curious fact that the first adventurer 
who ever set foot on this soil, Sir Francis Drake, 
although he was here for only a month, repair- 
ing his ship, became convinced that there was 
no earth about here but had some probable 
show of gold or silver in it. If news had spread 
then as rapidly as now, in these days of news- 
papers and telegraphs, it would not have lain 



CHINESE FEAST OF THE DEAD. 215 

two hundred and seventy years untouched, and 
then been discovered only by accident. 

Nov. 3/1876. 

A few days ago, I wandered on to the soli- 
tary Chinese quarter of Lone Mountain, and 
happened upon the celebration of the Feast of 
the Dead. Hundreds and hundreds of China- 
men were bowing over the graves in the sand. 
Each grave had on it little bright-colored tapers 
burning, sometimes large fires beside, made of 
the red and silver paper they use at the New 
Year. Each had curious little cups and teapots 
and chop-sticks, rice", sugar-cane, and roast chick- 
en. I saw some little white cakes, inscribed with 
red letters, similar to children's Christmas cakes 
with names on them. Every thing that seems 
nice to a Chinaman was there. They were so 
engrossed in what they were doing, that they 
took no notice whatever of my. observation of 
them. At each grave they spread a mat, and 
arranged the food. Then some one that I took 
for the nearest friend clasped his hands, and 
bowed in a sober, reverent way over the grave ; 
then poured one of the little cups of rice wine 
out on the sand. It reminded me of the offer- 
ings I saw made to the spirit of the dead Indian 
child, at Port Townsend. Then two dead men 



216 CHINESE FEAST OF THE DEAD. 

were brought out to be buried, while we stood 
there ; and the instant they were covered with 
the sand, the Chinamen called to each other, 
" fy, fy ! " (quick, quick ! ), — to light the fire, 
as if it were to guide them on the way, as the 
Indians think. They threw into the air a great 
many little papers. I asked if those were let- 
ters to the dead Chinamen, and they said, 
" Yes, " — but I am not sure if they understood 
me. 

It produced such a strange effect, in this 
wild, desert-looking place, to see all these cu- 
rious movements, and the fires and the feasts 
on the graves, that I felt utterly lost. It was 
as if I had stepped, for a few moments, into 
another world. 

The Chinamen are so very saving, never 
wasting any thing, and they have to work so 
hard for all their money, and pay such high 
duty on the things they import from home, that 
they would not incur all this expense unless 
they felt sure that it answered some end. It 
is a matter for endless pondering what they 
really believe about it. They are satisfied with 
a very poor, little, frugal meal for themselves ; 
but on this occasion every thing was done in 
the greatest style. At one place was a whole 
pig, roasted and varnished ; and every grave had 



CHINESE FEAST OF THE DEAD. 217 

a fat, roasted chicken, with its head on, and 
dressed and ornamented in the most fanciful 
manner. The red paper which they use for 
visiting-cards at the New Year, and seem to be 
very choice of then, they sacrificed in the most 
lavish way at this time. They fired off a great 
many crackers to keep off bad spirits. 

Most of the graves were only little sand- 
mounds for temporary use, until the occupants 
should be carried back to China ; but one was 
a great semi-circular vault, so grand and sub- 
stantial-looking that it suggested the Egyptian 
Catacombs. Over one division of the grave- 
yard, I saw a notice which I could partly read, 
saying that no woman or child could be buried 
there. 

The Chinese are so out of favor here now, 
that the State Government is trying to limit the 
number that shall be allowed to come. About 
a thousand arrive on each steamer. How fool- 
ish it seems to be afraid of them, especially 
for their good qualities ! the chief complaint 
against them being that they are so industrious, 
economical, and persevering, that sooner or later 
all the work here will fall into their hands. 

Jan. 9, 1877. 

We have been having some very strange 
weather here, — earthquake weather, it is called 



218 CURIOUS WEATHER. 

by some persons. It seems as if it came from 
internal fires. It has been so warm at night 
that we could not sleep, even with two open 
windows. • 

The chief thought of every one is, " When will 
it rain ? " Prayers are offered in the churches 
for rain. It is also the subject of betting ; and 
the paper this morning said that several of the 
prominent stockbrokers were confined to their 
rooms, with low spirits, on accoiiDt of the con- 
dition of stocks, caused by the general depres- 
sion from the dry season. We watch the sky 
a good deal. Strange clouds appear and disap- 
pear, but nothing comes of them. To-day, when 
I first looked out of my window, there were two 
together, before it, most human-like in appear- 
ance, that seemed to hold out their arms, as if 
in appeal; but, as I watched them, they only 
drew their beautiful trailing drapery after them, 
and moved slowly away. 

There is a curious excitement about this 
weather, coming in the middle of winter. These 
extremes of dryness, and this strange heat 
at this season, reversing all natural order, 
may be one cause of the peculiarities of the 
Californians ; and they are certainly peculiar 
people. I recently took a little excursion to 
Oakland, crossing the bay by the ferry, and 



NOTICE TO PASSENGERS. 219 

riding some distance in the cars. A pleasant 
feeling came over me as I saw that it was like 
crossing the Merrimac from Newbury port to 
Salisbury; the distance was about as far, and 
there were the same low trees and green grass 
on the opposite side. I felt quite at home, 
until, on entering the cars, my eyes lighted on 
this notice, posted conspicuously everywhere : 
" Passengers will beware of playing three-card 
monte, strap, or any other game of chance, 
with strangers. If you do, you will surely be 
robbed. " All visions of respectable New Eng- 
land vanished at that sight. 



XIV. 

Quong. — His ProUg4. — His Peace-Offering. — The Chinese 
and their Grandmothers. — Ancient Ideas. — Irish, French, 
and Spanish Chinamen. — Chinese Ingenuity. — Hostility 
against the Chinese. — Their Proclamations. — Discrimina- 
tions against them. — Their Evasion of the Law. — Their 
Perseverance against all Obstacles. — Their Reverence for 
their Ancestors, and Pear of the Dead. — Their Medical 
Knowledge. — Their Belief in the Future. — Their Curious 
Festivals. — Indian Names for the Months. — Resemblance 
between the Indians and Chinese. — Their Superstitions. 

San Francisco, Feb. 20, 1877. 

SOME time since, we asked the washman to 
send us a new boy. One evening, in the 
midst of a great storm of wind and rain, 
the most grotesque little creature appeared at 
the door, with his bundle under his arm, as if he 
were sure of being accepted. We thought we 
must keep him for a day or two, on account of 
the weather, and just to show him that he could 
not do what we wanted ; but he proved too 
amusing for us to think of letting him go. His 
name is Quong. He is shorter than Margie, 
who is only nine, and has much more of a baby 

220 



QUONG'S PROTEGE. 221 

face, but a great deal of dignity ; and he as- 
sures me, when they go out together, that he 
shall take good care of Margie and the baby, 
and if there is any trouble he will call the po- 
lice. We felt a little afraid to trust them with 
him at first, because the Chinese are so often 
attacked in the streets ; but he has unbounded 
confidence in the police, and has a little whistle 
with which to call them. It reminds me of 
Robin Hood ; he takes such great pleasure in 
making use of it, and comes out so safe from all 
dangers by the help of it. 

The first Sunday that he was here, we told 
him that he could go out for a while, as all the 
Chinese do on that day. When he came back, 
I asked him where he had been. These little 
boy are all petted a good deal at the wash- 
houses, and I supposed he had been there en- 
joying himself. But he said that he went 
every Sunday to see a small boy that he had 
charge of, who was too young to work ; that he 
sent him now to school, but next year he should 
tell him, " No work, no eat ; " and, if he did not 
do something to support himself, he should not 
give him clothes any more. I remember read- 
ing that the Chinese were considered men at 
fourteen. It is very comical to see such a little 
creature assume these responsibilities, and take 



222 HIS BUOYANCY. 

such pride in them. He says that he is ten, but 
his face is perfectly infantine ; and he is a baby 
too in his plays. He rolls and tumbles about 
like a young dog or kitten. If it rains, he 
seems like a wild duck, he is so pleased with 
it ; and then, when the sun comes out, he hardly 
knows how to express his enjoyment of it ; 
he looks at me with such a radiant face, saying, 
" Oh, nice sun, nice ! " I feel ready at that 
moment to forgive him for every thing that we 
ever have to blame him for, — such a sun seems 
to shine out of him ; and I feel as if we made a 
mistake to be critical about his little faults, 
which are mainly attributable to his extreme 
youth. 

He has lately been away to celebrate the new 
year. " Going home to China, " he calls it, 
because at that time the Chinese eat their 
national food, and observe their own customs. 
We told him, before he left, that he must be 
sure to come back in two days ; but three 

passed, with no sign of him. Then R went 

down to the wash-house, and left word that he 
must come directly back. In the course of the 
afternoon, he walked in. The moment he 
opened the door, we said to him, very severely, 
" What for }^ou stop too long ? " But he walked 
up to me, without a word, and put down before 



HIS PEACE-OFFERING. 223 

me a little dirty handkerchief, all tied up in 
knots, which I finally made up my mind to 
open. It was full of the most curious sweet- 
meats and candy, — little curls of cocoanut, 
frosted with sugar ; queer fruits, speckled with 
seeds ; and some nuts that looked exactly like 
carved ram's-heads with horns. We had to 
accept this as a peace-offering, and put aside 
our anger. 

He is much pleased to be where there is a 
woman. Although he is so young, he says that 
he has lived generally only with men, — Span- 
ish men, he says, where there was " too much 
tree. " I suppose it was some rather unsettled 
place, — a sheep-ranch, perhaps. 

He is so unsophisticated that he will answer 
all our questions, as the older ones will not, if 
they can. I asked him, one day, about the cere- 
monies that I saw at Lone Mountain, — what 
they burned the red and silver paper on the 
graves for ; and he said that in the other world 
the Chinamen were dressed in paper, and, if they 
did not burn some for them on their graves, 
they would not have any clothes. I told him I 
saw a boy kneel down on a grave, and take a 
cup of rice wine, and sip a little, and then pour 
it out on the sand. He said, Oh, no, that he 
did not drink any, only put it to his lips, and 



224 CHINESE GRANDMOTHERS. 

said, " Good-by, good-by, " because the dead 
Chinaman would come no more. 

Whenever he speaks of any thing mysterious, 
we can see, by the darkening of his face, how 
he feels the awe of it. One of his friends, in 
hurrying to get his ironing done, to get ready 
to celebrate the new year, brought on an attack 
of hemorrhage of the lungs. Of course, it was 
necessary to keep him entirely still, which his 
companions knew ; but, at the same time, they 
were so afraid that he might die where he was, 
that they insisted on carrying him to another 
place, a long way off, which killed him. For, 
they said, if he died at the wash-house, he would 
come back there ; and then all the Chinamen 
would leave, or they would have to move the 
house. His grandmother, the boy said, came 
back in a blue flame, and asked for some- 
thing to eat , and they had to move the house ; 
then she came back to where the house stood 
before, but could not get any farther. 

The Chinese stand in great awe of their 
grandmothers. In their estimate of women, as 
in many of their other ideas, they are quite dif- 
ferent from the rest of the world ; with them a 
woman increases in value as she grows older. 
The young girl who is a slave to her mother 
can look forward to the prospect of being a 
goddess to her grandchildren. 



QUONG'S OBSERVATION. 225 

March 20, 1877. 

Quong observes every thing, and asks endless 
questions about what he sees. He says that the 
French and Spanish people here like the China- 
men " too much " (a good deal) ; and that the 
" Melicans half likee, half no likee ; " but the 
Irishmen "no likee nothing," — seeing so 
plainly who their true enemies are. Many of 
the principal people here are Irish. On St. 

Patrick's Day, R told him that he was going 

to take Margie to see the procession, and that 
he could go too ; but he said, with an air of im- 
mense superiority, that he did not care to go 
and see the " whiskey men ; " he would rather 
stop at home, and do his work. 

I feel now that all my responsibilities are 

shared. A while ago, R was obliged to stay 

out one night till twelve o'clock ; and, when he 
came home, he found the boy, with his little 
black head on the kitchen table, fast asleep. 
When he waked him, and asked him what he 
was there for, he said, that, as every one else 
was asleep, he staid there to take care of the 

house. On another occasion, when R was 

to be out late again, I took pains to tell him to 
go right to bed, as soon as he had washed the 
dishes. He looked up at me, as if he were 
going to suggest the most insuperable obstacle 



226 ANCIENT IDEAS. 

to that, and asked, " Who fuff the light? " (put 
it out.) 

One thing that I am always very much im- 
pressed with, in regard to the Chinese, is the 
feeling of there being something ancient about 
them, no matter how young they may be them- 
selves ; not only because many of them wear 
clothes which appear to have been handed 
down from their remotest ancestors, but they 
have ancient ideas. This boy, although he is 
of such a cheerful temperament, seems always 
to keep his own death in view, as much as the 
old Egyptian kings ever did. He pays a kind 
of burial-fee, amounting to nearly a quarter of 
his wages, every month, to some one appointed 
by the Chinese company to which he belongs ; 

and when R remonstrated with him, and 

told him how foolish and unnecessary it was, 
and how much better it would be to spend the 
money for something else, he seemed to regard 
his remarks with great horror, and said he must 
pay it ; to leave off wasn't to be thought of, for 
then, he said, he should have " no hole to get 
into " (meaning no grave), and there would be 
no apples thrown away at his funeral. 

We one day heard him speaking of one of his 
countrymen as an Irish Chinaman ; and, when 
we asked him what he meant, he said there were 



IRISH, FRENCH, AND SPANISH CHINAMEN. 227 

Irish Chinamen, French Chinamen, and Span- 
ish Chinamen. Our own observation seems to 
confirm this idea. We see often among them 
the light, careless temperament which marks 
the French ; these are the men who support the 
theatres, and patronize the gaming-dens. The 
grave, serene Spanish is the common type ; and, 
since the hoodlum spirit has broken out among 
the Californians, it has called out a coarse, 
rough class among the Chinese, corresponding 
to the lower grades of the Irish. To this class 
belong the "Highbinders," — men bound by- 
secret oaths to murder, robbery, and outrage. 
The actual crimes that can be justly charged 
against the Chinese in this country are due, 
almost wholly, to the spirit that evoked these 
men. 

Their ingenuity is equal to their perseverance 
in accomplishing an end. The Six Companies 
having made a regulation in regard to the wash- 
houses, that there should be at least fifteen 
houses between every two of them, one of the 
washmen was notified that he must give up 
his business, there being only fourteen houses 
between his and the next establishment. Al- 
though the Six Companies' directions are abso- 
lute law, he had no idea of doing this. He 
carefully examined the fourteen buildings, and 



228 HOSTILITY TO THE CHINESE. 

found among them a deserted pickle manufac- 
tory, which he hired for one day, with the priv- 
ilege of putting up a partition which would 
divide it into two houses, — in that way fulfill- 
ing the requirements of the law. 

April 30, 1877. 

There has lately been a great excitement 
about the Chinese here, and several meetings 
hava been held to consider how to get rid of 
them; and anti-Chinese processions, carrying 
banners with crossed daggers, have paraded the 
streets. One night the Chinese armed them- 
selves, and went up on to the tops of their 
houses, prepared to fire on a mob. They issued 
a proclamation, saying, that they were not much 
accustomed to fighting (I remember learning, 
in the geography, that they dressed themselves 
in quilted petticoats when they went to battle), 
but they should sell their lives as dearly as they 
could. 

Another proclamation which they sent out 
was very characteristic of them ; it showed so 
good an understanding of the subject, suggest- 
ing so artfully that, if the Chinamen were not 
allowed unlimited freedom to come here, Amer- 
icans should not be allowed to go to China. 

In an " Address to the Public " which they 
recently put forth, they explained, that, instead 



ARGUMENTS AGAINST THEM. 229 

of taking the places of better men, as they are 
accused of doing, they considered that, in per- 
forming the menial work they did, they opened 
the way to higher and more lucrative employ- 
ments for others; saying several times, in their 
simple, impressive way, " We lift others up." 

In regard to the other chief accusation, — that 
they do not profit the country any, do not invest 
any thing here, but send every thing home to 
China, — they said, " The money that you pay 
us for our labor, we send home ; but the work 
remains for you," — as, for instance, the Pacific 
Railroad. 

In trying to accumulate arguments against 
them, the anti-Chinese party have made a great 
deal of the fact that they are bound to compa- 
nies, who advance money for them to come here, 
and say that the cooly trade is like the slave- 
trade. One of the anti-Chinese speakers said 
he helped make California a free state, and 
seemed to think he was employed in the same 
meritorious way now. Upon investigation, it 
proved that many of them do mortgage them- 
selves — that is, their services — for a number 
of years, to get here ; and that it is often in order 
that they may support poor relatives at home, 
who would otherwise starve. This shows some 
of their heathen virtues. A good deal of the 



230 DISCRIMINATIONS AGAINST TEEM. 

objection to them seems to be on the ground of 
their being Pagans ; some of the speakers saying 
that it is " so very demoralizing to our Christian 
youth," that they should be here, — quite over- 
looking a very large class of the population 
who are worse than Pagans, and vastly more 
dangerous. 

The idea now seems to be, to drive them 
away by discriminating against them in State 
and city regulations ; as, for instance, b}^ enfor- 
cing the "pure-air ordinance, " by which every 
Chinaman who sleeps where there is less than 
five hundred cubic feet of air for each person, 
pays a fine of ten dollars, but white people 
sleep as they choose. Then, as they value their 
cues above all things, and are greatly dis- 
graced if they lose them, — having even been 
known to commit suicide when deprived of 
them, — an old ordinance is restored, by which 
every one who is put in jail must have his hair 
cropped close. They are often arrested on false 
charges. Then a special tax is levied on their 
wash-houses, and a new regulation made, by 
which no one can carry baskets on poles across 
the sidewalks ; that being the way they carry 
about vegetables to sell. All these little teas- 
ing things, and a great many other annoyances 
which have not any pretence of legality, they 



THEIR EVASION OF THE LAW. 231 

bear with patience, and seem in all ways to 
show more forbearance even, and give, if possi- 
ble, less ground for complaint, than before. 

The poll-tax, which is levied on all males 
over twenty-one years of age, is rigorously col- 
lected from the Chinamen, while no special 
effort is made to collect it from the whites. In 
crossing the ferry to Oakland, they are often 
pounced upon by the collector, — in many in- 
stances when they are under age ; and, unless 
they can show a tax receipt, their travelling 
bags or bundles are taken from them, and re- 
tained until the requirements of the collector 
are satisfied. Their wit and shrewdness avail 
them, however, to avoid this trouble ; and a 
Chinaman who has occasion to cross the ferry 
can usually borrow the tax receipt of some one 
who has already paid. This serves as a pass- 
port, as it is not easy for a white man to distin- 
guish them as individuals, on account of their 
similarity in dress, manners, and general ap- 
pearance. 

The police, being extremely vigilant in respect 
to all violations of law by the Chinese, have 
sought out their gambling-dens with great dili- 
gence, and made many arrests. The Chinese, 
not to be baffled, — besides resorting to laby- 
rinthine passages, underground apartments, bar- 



232 THEIR EVASION OF THE LAW. 

ricades of various kinds, and other modes of 
secluding themselves, to indulge in their games 
undisturbed, — have adopted one medium after 
another in place of cards, substituting some- 
thing that could be quickly concealed in case 
the police should surprise them. At one time 
they made use of squash or melon seeds for this 
purpose, cutting on them the necessary devices. 
These could be much more easily concealed 
about the folds of their loose garments than 
cards. When this ruse was detected, they made 
use of almonds in the same way ; and, when sur- 
prised, hastily devoured them, leaving not a par- 
ticle of evidence upon which a policeman could 
base an arrest. 

May 10, 1877. 

One of the strongest arguments against the 
Chinese has been that they could never affiliate 
with our people, nor enter into the spirit of our 
institutions ; that they had no desire to become 
citizens, and had no families here. Now that 
they have petitioned for common-school privi- 
leges for their children, stating how many there 
are here, and to what extent they are taxed to 
support schools, there is a louder outcry than 
ever against them, for such audacity. They 
are slowly asserting themselves, in different 
ways, and showing that they understand a good 



PERSEVERANCE AGAINST ALL OBSTACLES. 233 

deal that we thought they did not. One of 
them has now protested against being impris- 
oned for violating the "pure-air ordinance." 
The city has made a good deal of money by 
the fines paid on this account, but it has been 
thought expedient to stop the arrests while this 
case is being tried. 

Then they are making an effort against the 
injustice of the city in discriminating against 
them by charging more for laundry licenses 
where the clothes are carried about by hand, 
than where horses are used ; in this way obliging 
any one who does a small business to pay more 
in proportion than one who does a large busi- 
ness. There are a great many large French 
laundries here, that all send about wagons. 
The Chinese carry every thing by hand ; they 
seem altogether too meek and timid to have 
horses ; but, as they adapt themselves to every 
thing, they have looked about, and met the dif- 
ficulty, in part, by securing quite a number of 
poor, abject animals, with which they are be- 
ginning to appear in the streets. There is no 
change they are not willing to make ; and their 
patience and perseverance are unconquerable, 
about staying and going on with their work. 
As an Eastern writer said of them : " They bow 
to the storm, and rise up, and plod on in the 



234 REVERENCE FOR ANCESTORS. 

intervals." It is very true of them, as we see 
them here, — so unresisting, and yet so resist- 
less. 

We have lately made the acquaintance of a 
man who has lived thirty years in Shanghae, 
who explained many of their customs and ideas. 
He confirmed some things that our boys had 
told us, but we understood them better from 
him. He said that the Chinese have such per- 
fect faith in continued life after death, and in a 
man's increased power in another life, that it 
was not an unusual thing for any one who had 
some great injury to avenge, to kill himself, in 
order to get into a position to do it more effect- 
ually. To them a dead man is more important 
than a living one ; and the one great feature of 
their religion is the worship of their ancestors. 
They make a great many offerings to them, — 
as we saw them do at Lone Mountain. If any 
one dies at sea, or in a foreign country, where 
there is no friend or relative to do this for him, 
he becomes a beggar spirit. It is the duty of 
the Chinese at home to make offerings to beg- 
gar spirits as well as to their own relatives. If 
any great misfortune happens to a man, he 
thinks he must have neglected or offended some 
dead relative, or perhaps one of these beggar 
spirits ; and will impoverish himself for years, to 



FEAR OF THE DEAD. 235 

atone for it by a great feast. They are very 
much afraid of the spirits, and build their houses 
with intricate passages, and put up screens, to 
keep them from seeing what happens ; and they 
especially avoid openings north and south, as 
they think the spirits move only in north and 
south lines. What is more important than al- 
most any thing in a man's life, is to be placed 
right after his death, — toward the south, that 
he may receive genial and reviving influences 
from it ; but if he is toward the north, and 
gets chilling influences from that direction, he 
wreaks his vengeance on his living relatives 
who placed him there. 

We learn a good deal from the boys we have. 
I should like very much to go into their schools, 
they are so well taught in many respects. One 
of our boys once took some fruit-wax, and mod- 
elled a perfect little duck. He said he was 
taught at school how to do it. He also drew 
several animals with an exceedingly life-like 
appearance. This early instruction is no doubt 
the basis of the acknowledged superiority of 
the Chinese as carvers in wood and ivory. 

I have often wondered that more of them do 
not die in coming to a climate so different 
from their own, and adopting such new modes 
of life as most of them are obliged to do. But 



236 THEIR MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE. 

they all seem to have been taught the rudi- 
ments of medicine. A young American boy, 
if he is sick, has not the remotest idea what to 
do for himself; but the Chinese boys know in 
most cases. We have often seen them steep- 
ing their little tin cups of seeds, roots, or leaves 
on the kitchen stove, which they said was medi- 
cine for some ailment or other, but "Melican 
man no sabbe Chinaman medicine;" and some- 
times, when they did not have their own reme- 
dies at hand, I have offered them pellets or 
tinctures from my homoeopathic supply, which 
they could rarely be induced to accept, alle- 
ging that " Melican medicine no good for Chi- 
naman." One of our little boys went to a 
Chinese doctor for himself one day, and when 
he came back, I asked him what the doctor 
said. He told me that he pressed with his finger 
here and there on his flesh, to see if it rose 
readily, and the color came back. I saw that 
he meant if any one was not very sick, that the 
flesh was elastic ; and I thought it was quite a 
good test, and one that might perhaps be useful 
to our doctors. They have one curious idea in 
their treatment, which is, that, if any one is 
sick, he is to eat an additional meal instead of 
less. Nevertheless, they seem to get well with 
this arrangement. 



THEIR BELIEF IN THE FUTURE. 237 

The belief in a future life, and in improved 
conditions hereafter, seems to be universal 
among them. A poor Chinaman was found 
dead near us, with a letter beside him, which 
was translated at the inquest held over the 
body. 

Third Month, 27th day [May 4]. 
To my Father and Mother, — I came to this coun- 
try, and spent my money at the gambling-table, and 
have not accomplished any thing. Where I am now, I 
cannot raise money to return home. I am sick, and have 
not long to live. My life has been a useless one. When 
you have read this letter, do not cry yourselves sick on 
my account. Let my brothers' wives rear and educate 
my two cousins. I wish to be known as godfather to 
one of them. I desire Chow He, my wife, to protect and 
assist you. When you both are dead, she may marry if 
she wishes. In this world I can do no more for you, 
father and mother. You must look to the next world 
for any future benefit to be received from me. 

TONG GOOT LOON. 

Sept. 10, 1877. 

The Chinese generally appear unwilling to 
talk with us about their religious customs and 
ideas, apparently from superstitious feelings. 
Occasionally we meet with an intelligent one, 
who readily answers our questions, and tells 
us about many of their festivals celebrated at 
home, which are not recognized here. Not- 



238 THEIR CURIOUS FESTIVALS. 

withstanding their solemn faces and methodical 
ways, they are as fond of celebrations as the 
San Francisco people themselves. They cele- 
brate the Festival of the Little Cold, and of 
the Great Cold ; of the Little Snow, and of the 
Great Snow; of the Moderate Heat, and of 
the Great Heat. Early in the autumn comes 
the Festival of Pak-lo, or the White Dew; 
later in the autumn, the Festival of Hon-lo, 
or the Cold Dew. About the time of our har- 
vest moon, the fifteenth day of eighth moon, 
they celebrate the Festival of the Full Moon, 
eating moon-cakes, and sending presents to 
their friends, of tea, wine, and fruits ; in Feb- 
ruar}^, the Festival of Rain and Water ; early in 
the spring (the sixth day of second moon), 
the Festival of Enlivened Insects. On the 
third da}^ of third moon they celebrate, for 
three days and nights, the birthday of Pak 
Tai, god of the extreme north ; in spring, the 
birthday of the god of health ; in spring also, 
the great Festival of Tsing Ming (Clear and 
Bright). On this occasion, they visit and wor- 
ship at the tombs. In all great festivals the 
ancestors must share. In early summer occurs 
the Festival of the Prematurely Ripened. The 
hour for the offering of each sacrifice is most 
carefully chosen, — that of the spring sacrifice 
being at the first glimmering of dawn. 



INDIAN NAMES FOR THE MONTHS. 239 

This shows as close observation of nature on 
their part as the Indians display, and reminds 
me of the names the Makahs give to the months: 
December, the moon when the gray whale ap- 
pears ; March, the moon of the fin-back whale ; 
April, the moon of sprouts and buds ; May, the 
moon of the salmon-berry; June, the moon of 
the red huckleberry ; November, the moon 
of winds and screaming birds. The Makahs 
select the time of the full moon as an espe- 
cially favorable one to communicate with the 
Great Spirit. 

I do not know whether it is now considered 
that our Indians are of Oriental origin. It 
seems at first as if two races could hardly differ 
more than Indians and Chinese ; but, after liv- 
ing long among them, many resemblances at- 
tract our attention. We have seen, occasion- 
ally, Indians with quite Mongolian features, 
and short, square frames. Flattening the head 
among the Indians is considered a mark of dis- 
tinction, as compressing the feet is with the 
Chinese ; no slave being allowed to practise 
either. The reverence of the Indians for the 
graves of their fathers approaches the worship 
of ancestors among the Chinese. No outrage 
is greater to the Indians than to desecrate the 
burial-places of their dead. They often make 



240 THE INDIANS AND CHINESE. 

sacrifices to them-, and celebrate anniversaries 
of the dead with dancing and feasting. The 
Chinese feast their dead at regular intervals, 
and carry them thousands of miles across the 
ocean from foreign countries to rest in their 
own land at last. The Manitous (ruling spirits) 
of earth, air, and water, with the Indians, are, 
in some respects, like the Shin of the Chinese, 

— spirits that inhabit ail nature ; but the Shin 
are inferior deities, not having much power, 
being employed rather as detectives, — as the 
kitchen god, or hearth spirit, who at the end of 
the year reports the conduct of the family to 
Shang-te, the God of Heaven. Both races are 
firm believers in the power and efficacy of 
charms : the Chinaman, in his green-jade brace- 
let, is demon-proof; the Indian warrior, in a 
white wolf-skin, rides to certain victory. Both 
are excessively superstitious, considering that 
the ruling spirits are sometimes friendly, some- 
times hostile ; and feel it necessary, in all the 
commonest acts of their lives, to be constantly 
on the watch to guard against malign influences, 

— attributing great power for harm to the spir- 
its of the dead. An Indian, like a Chinaman, 
will frequently abandon his lodge, thinking 
some dead relative whom he has offended has 
discovered him there. He is afraid to speak the 



THE INDIANS AND CHINESE. 241 

name of any one who is dead, and often changes 
his own name, that the dead person, not hear- 
ing the old name spoken, may not so readily find 
him. Indians and Chinese are alike in the 
habit of changing their* names, having one for 
youth, another for manhood, and a third for 
old age ; taking new names many times in the 
course of their lives, — as after any great event 
or performance. 

They resemble each other in their infatuation 
for gambling, — a Chinaman, after all his pos- 
sessions have been staked and lost, sometimes 
selling himself for a term of years, to keep up 
the game ; or an Indian gambling away a hand, 
an arm, a leg, and so on, and at last the head, 
until the whole body is lost at the play, and then 
he goes into perpetual slavery. The Indians 
will sometimes gamble away their children, 
though they are usually very fond of them, — 
the typical " bad Indian " with them being one 
who is cowardly, or who neglects his children. 



XV. 

Chun Fa's Funeral. — Alameda. — Gophers and Lizards. — 
Poison Oak. — Sturdy Trees. — Baby Lizards. — Old Ala- 
meda. — Emperor Norton. — California Generosity. — The 
Dead Newsboy. — Anniversary of the Goddess Kum Fa. — 
Chinese Regard for the Moon and Flowers. — A Shin Wor- 
shipper. 

Alameda, Cal., April 5, 1878. 

WE have left San Francisco, and come 
across the bay to live. The last thing I 
did there was to go to a Chinawoman's funeral. 
I saw in the papers that Chun Fa, the wife of 
Loy Mong, was dead ; and he would like to 
have all the Christian Chinese and their friends 
come to the funeral. I thought I would go. 
Especially at this time, when the Chinese meet 
with so much bad treatment, we are glad of an 
opportunity to show our good-will and sympa- 
thy ; but I did not expect to be so much inter- 
ested as I was. The columns in the chapel 
were wreathed with ivy and lilies, and every 
tiling was very quiet and pleasant in the bright 
forenoon. One side of the church was rilled 

242 



CHUN FA'S FUNERAL. 243 

with Chinese women and girls. It is very hard 
to tell which are women, and which are chil- 
dren, they all have such childlike faces. I 
suppose it is because they are so undeveloped. 
Their uncovered heads, and smooth, shining 
black hair, looked to me at first all exactly 
alike; all the company seemed of one pattern. 
But, when I had noticed them longer, I saw 
some variety in their manners and expressions. 
To sit there among them, and feel the differ- 
ences between them and us, and the resem- 
blances, — so much stronger than the differences, 
— was a curious experience. 

It was a school, I found, and Chun Fa seemed 
to have been the flower of it. They all mourned 
very much at losing her. She was the wife of 
one of their principal merchants, — but their 
wives are often children. She had a sweet, in- 
nocent face ; and we heard that she was very 
intelligent, and eager to learn. With her fair, 
open look, it seemed as if one could have done 
a great deal with her in the way of develop- 
ment. 

An American man first made a prayer in 
Chinese ; then they all sang — 

" Shall we gather at the river? " 
in English. They sang with so much fervor, 



244 CHUN FA'S FUNERAL. 

that, although it was so unmusical, I felt more 
like crying than laughing, to think it was for 
one of those Chinese women who have been so 
badly spoken "of ; the papers often saying that 
they are all prostitutes, that there are no fami- 
lies among them, and that the California people 
must purify their State by getting rid of them. 
Then a serene-looking Chinaman chanted some- 
thing that sounded very soothing and musical, 
and another made a prayer. Then we went, 
each one, and took leave of poor little Chun Fa. 
I thought I should have been willing to have 
it my funeral, every thing was so genuine about 
it; no cant, and nothing superfluous. 

We met with quite a disappointment in leav- 
ing San Francisco, to find that our little Quong 
could not go with us. We thought we had 
obtained leave from the proper patron ; but at 
the last a brother appeared who claimed to be 
superior authority, and forbade his going. As 
he seemed a very gruff, disagreeable person, 
and, as the boy said, had never treated him 
kindly, we advised him to disobey him ; but he 
said it would never do for a little China boy 
to disobey a father or an older brother ; but, 
when he was old enough, he would take tdn 
dollars, and buy a pistol, and shoot him. 



ALAMEDA. 245 

April 30, 1878. 

We are only an hour's ride by cars and 
steamer from San Francisco. It is hard to 
believe it, it is so wholly different a place. Be- 
fore us is a field of blue nemophilas. To see 
them waving in the wind, recalled to me what 
Emerson said about its restoring any one to 
reason and faith to live in the midst of nature, 
— so many trivial cares and anxieties disap- 
peared at the sight of it. On the other side, 
the water rolls softly up to our very door. We 
bathe in it, floating about at will in warm or 
cold currents. 

The first morning after we moved here, I 
noticed two small hills and holes, newly dug, 
beside our door. A curious little head thrust 
itself out of one, and two small eyes peered at 
me. They belonged to one of the little under- 
ground creatures, called gophers, that we have 
all about us. They eat roots, and it is almost 
impossible to cultivate any thing where they 
are. They appeared to have come just because 
they saw that the house was going to be occu- 
pied. I think they like human company, only 
they want to keep their own distance. They 
and the lizards quite animate the landscape. 
The gopher's wise, old-fashioned looking head 
is quite a contrast to that of the lizard, with its 



246 COMPANIONSHIP OF THE WATER. 

eager, inquisitive expression. There is always 
a little twisted-up head and bright eye, or a 
sharp little tail, appearing and disappearing, 
wherever we look. They spend their whole 
time in coming and going. Their purpose seems 
to be accomplished, if they succeed in seeing 
us, and getting safely away. 

The wagoner who moved us over from San 
Francisco made some commiserating remarks 
concerning me, as he deposited the last load of 
furniture ; saying that it was a good place to 
raise children, but would be very solitary for 
the woman. 

It is a lonely place here, but the water is con- 
stant company. As I write, the only sound I 
can hear is the gentle roll of waves, and now 
and then an under sound that seems to come 
from far-off caverns, — so soft and so deep. I 
never lived so close to the water before, so that 
its changes made a part of my every-day life. 
Even when I am so busy that I do not look at 
it, I feel how the tide is creeping in, filling up 
all the little inlets, and making all waste places 
bright and full. 

May 10, 1878. 

We made inquiries of some of the old resi- 
dents, in reference to the wind, before we de- 
cided to come here; but people who live in 



POISON OAK. 247 

half-settled places, I find, are very apt to misrep- 
resent, — they are so eager for neighbors. How 
much wiser we should have been to have con- 
sulted the trees ! — they show so plainly that 
they have fought all their lives against a strong 
sea-wind, bending low, and twisting themselves 
about, trying to get away from it. 

We find that where we live is not Alameda 
proper, but is called the Encinal District, — 
encinal being the Spanish for oak. I do not 
know whether they mean by it the old dusky 
evergreens, or the poison oak which is every 
where their inseparable companion. Soon after 
we arrived, we found ourselves severely affected 
by it. It was then in flower, and we attributed 
its strength to that circumstance ; but every 
change it passes through re-enforces its life, — 
when it ripens its berries, when its leaves turn 
bright, or when the autumn rains begin. Every 
thing suits it ; moisture or dryness, whichever 
prevails, appears to be its element. Thoreau, 
who liked to see weeds overrun flowers, would 
have rejoiced in its vigor. We never touch it ; 
but any one sensitive to its influence cannot 
pass near it, nor breathe the air where it grows, 
without being affected by it. Alameda seems 
hardly ready for human occupancy yet, unless 
something effectual can be done to exterminate 



248 STURDY TREES. 

it. We often see superficial means taken, like 
burning it down to the level of the earth; but 
what short-sighted warfare is that which gives 
new strength after a brief interval ! On one 
account I forgive it many injuries, — that it fur- 
nishes our only bright autumn foliage, turn- 
ing into most vivid and beautiful shades of red. 
Except for the poison oak, and a few of the long, 
narrow leaves of the Eucalyptus, that hang like 
party-colored ribbons on the trees, we have no 
change in the foliage between summer and win- 
ter ; there are always the same old dingy ever- 
green oaks everywhere about us. 

There are some cultivated grounds and gar- 
dens in the neighborhood, but everywhere in- 
terspersed among them are wild fields. The 
trees have a determined look, as they stand and 
hold possession of them. The cultivated ones 
that border the streets, in contrast with them, 
appear quite tame. I find myself thinking of 
the latter sometimes as if they were artificial, 
and only these old aborigines were real ; they 
have so much more character and expression. 
I heard a lady criticising Alameda, saying that 
there were so many trees, you could not see 
the place. We have a general feeling, all the 
time, as if we were camping out, and every- 
body else were camping out too. The trees are 



STURDY TREES. 249 

scattered everywhere ; and it is quite the fashion, 
in this humble part of the town, for people to 
live in tents while they build their own houses. 
These trees are of a very social kind, bending 
low, and spreading their branches wide, so that 
any one could almost live in them just as they 
are. They are a great contrast to the firs 
which we had wholly around us on Puget 
Sound. They have strange fancies for twisting 
and turning. I have never seen two alike, nor 
one that grew up straight. It is not because 
they are so yielding, — they are as stiff and rug- 
ged as they can be, — it must be their own wild 
nature that makes them like to grow in strange, 
irregular ways. Sometimes, when I look at 
great fields of them, I feel as if I were in the 
midst of a storm, every thing has such a wind- 
swept look, although it is perfectly still at the 
time. One day I came upon a body of them, 
that appeared as if they had all been stopped 
by some sudden enchantment, in the midst of 
running away. Often we see trees that look as 
if they had come out of the wars, with great 
clefts in their sides, and holes through them. 
Their foliage is very slight ; there is very little 
to conceal their muscular look. It seems as if 
we could feel in them the will that tightened 
all the fibres. 



250 BABY LIZARDS. 

May 15/1878. 

The great event to us lately has been the 
advent of the baby lizards. The streets are all 
laid with planks, clean and sunny. The lizards 
delight in them, they are so bright and warm. 
I like to see, as I walk along, these curious little 
bodies, in old-fashioned scale armor, stopping 
and looking about, as if they were drinking in 
the comfort of the sunshine, just as I am. Al- 
though they stop a great deal, it is very difficult 
to catch one, for their movements are like a 
flash. I did succeed once in holding one long 
enough to examine his beautiful steel-blue 
bands. The babies are as delicate as if they 
were made of glass, and as light and airy as if 
they belonged to fairy-land. They run, all the 
time, backward and forward, just for the pleas- 
ure of moving, over the sidewalk, and under 
it. 

When I read in the papers, every week, about 
the people who kill themselves in San Fran- 
cisco, — and they generally say that they do it 
because there does not seem to be any thing 
worth living for, — I wonder if it would not 
make a difference to them if they lived in the 
country, and saw how entertaining the world 
looks to the lively little creatures about us, who 
think it worth while to move so quickly, and 



SPRING FLOWERS. 251 

look well about on every side, for fear they 
may miss seeing something. 

July 2, 1878. 

When we first came here in the spring, and 
found the ground all blue and yellow and white 
with blossoms, I thought how interested I should 
be, to watch the succession of flowers. But that 
was all. In these dry places, we have only 
spring flowers. I did, though, the other day, 
see something red in the distance, and, going to 
it, found a clump of thistles, almost as tall as 
I am, of a bright crimson color. The fields are 
very dry now, and it seems to be the season of 
the snakes. Under the serpent-like branches, 
we find nothing but the cast-off skins of the 
snakes. 

There are some curious old men here who 
tend cattle, sitting under the trees, with their 
knitting. I think they are Germans. • They do 
not appear to understand when I speak to them. 
I thought they might be " broke miners," who 
are generally the most curious people here- 
abouts. 

One of these" broke miners " is employed to 
take care of two little children near us, whose 
mother is dead. He dresses them with their 
clothes hind-side before, and liable at any mo- 
ment to drop entirely off; but seems to succeed 



252 OLD ALAMEDA. 

very well in amusing them, quilting up his dish- 
cloths into dolls for them, and transforming 
their garments into kites. His failing seems 
to be that a kind of dreamy mood is apt to steal 
over him, in which he wanders on the beach, re- 
gardless of hours*, and the master of the house, 
coming home, has to hunt high and low for him, 
to come and prepare the meal. On the last 
bright moonlight night, he wholly disappeared. 

Oct. 15, 1878. 

We have finally been driven off by the wind 
from our cottage on the bay. Margie has been 
so accustomed to moving, that she takes it as 
easily as an Indian child would. A few days 
before we left, she gave me an account of the 
moving of the man opposite, which was all ac- 
complished before breakfast in the morning. 
First, she said, he put all his things on a wagon, 
and then took his house to pieces, and put that 
on ; and then he and the wagoner sat down and 
drank a pot of coffee together, and started off, 
on their load. 

We did not take our house with us, but found 
a rather dilapidated one, in what is called Old 
Alameda. It is quite attractive, from the trees 
and vines about it, and the spacious garden in 
which it stands. It is owned by an old Ger- 



OLD ALAMEDA. 253 

man woman, who lives next to us. She is rich 
now, and owns the whole block, but still holds 
to her old peasant customs, and wears wooden 
shoes. Opposite is a French family, who go off 
every year to a vineyard, to make wine ; and, 
next to them, a poor Spanish family, who carry 
round mussels to sell. 

March 3, 1879. 

We have had a real winter ; not that it was 
very cold or snowy, — that it never is here, — 
but so excessively rainy as to keep us a good 
deal in-doors. The grass grew up in the house, 
and waved luxuriantly round the edges of the 
rooms. The oak-trees surprised us by bursting 
out into fresh young green, though we had not 
noticed that they had lost any of their hard, 
evergreen leaves. 

April 10, 1879. 

While we were crossing the ferry between 
San Francisco and Oakland one day, a peculiar- 
looking person appeared on the deck of the 
boat, who saluted the assembled company in a 
most impressive manner. He was a large man, 
serene and self-possessed, with rather a hand- 
some face. On his broad shoulders he wore 
massive epaulets, a sword hung by his side, and 
his hat was crowned with nodding peacock 
feathers. I noticed that he passed the gates 



254 EMPEROR NORTON. 

where the tickets are delivered, unquestioned, 
giving only a courteous salute, instead of * the 
customary passport. Upon inquiry, I learned 
that he was the "Emperor Norton, ruler of 
California," according to his fancy; and that he 
passed free wherever he chose to go, — theatres 
opening their doors to him, railroads and steam- 
ers conveying him without charge. He was an 
old pioneer, distraught by misfortunes, and hu- 
mored in this hallucination by the people. He 
was in the habit of ordering daily telegraphic 
despatches sent to the different crowned heads 
of Europe. He had once been known to draw 
his sword upon his washer-woman, because she 
presumed to demand payment for his washing ; 
whereupon the Pioneer Society, learning of the 
affair, took upon itself the charge of meeting all 
little expenses of this nature. 

The Californians have a jolly, good-natured 
way of regarding idiosyncrasies, and a kind of 
lavish generosity in the distribution of their 
alms, quite different from the careful and judi- 
cious method of the Eastern people. We hear 
that some of the early miners, passing along 
the streets of San Francisco, just after it had 
been devastated by one of the terrible fires that 
swept every thing before them, and seeing a lone 
woman sitting and weeping among the ruins, 



CALAFORNIA GENEROSITY. 255 

flung twenty-dollar gold pieces and little pack- 
ages of gold dust at her, until all her losses were 
made good, and she had a handsome overplus to 
start anew. 

I noticed in Oakland a man who drew the 
whole length of his body along the sidewalk, 
like an enormous reptile, moving slowly by the 
the help of his hands, unable to get along in 
any other way, holding up a bright, sunny, 
sailor face. On his back was a pack of news- 
papers, from which men helped themselves, and 
flung him generally a half or a quarter of a 
dollar, always refusing the change. That such 
a man could do business in the streets, was a 
credit to the kindliness of the people incom- 
moded by him. I hardly think he would have 
been tolerated in New York or Boston ; but 
his pleasant face and fast-disappearing papers 
showed that he was not made uncomfortably 
aware of the inconvenience he caused. 

One day, while waiting at the ferry, I saw 
two men employed in a way that attracted the 
attention of every one who passed. One of 
them, who had in his hand a pair of crutches, 
ascended some steps, and, crossing them, nailed 
them to the wall, close to the gateway where 
the passengers passed to the boat. The other 
arranged some light drapery in the form of 



256 TEE DEAD NEWSBOY. 

wings above them. Below they put a small 
table, with the photograph of a little newsboy 
on it. All the business-men, the e very-day pas- 
sengers crossing to their homes on the Oakland 
side, appeared to understand it, and quietly laid 
some piece of money beside the picture. It 
seems that it was the stand of a little crippled 
boy who had for a year or two furnished the 
daily papers to the .passengers passing to the 
boat. The money was for his funeral expenses, 
and to help his family. It was very character- 
istic of the Californians to take this dramatic 
and effective way of collecting" a fund;. Men 
who would have been very likely to meet a 
subscription-paper with indifference, on being 
appealed to in this poetic manner, with no word 
spoken, only seeing the discarded crutches and 
the white wings above, with moist eyes laid 
their little tribute below, as if it were a satis- 
faction to do so. I thought how the little 
newsboy's face would have brightened if he 
could have seen it, and hoped that he might 
not be beyond all knowledge of it now. 

We have had an opportunity to observe some 
fine-looking Chinamen who have been at work 
on the railroad all winter opposite our house. 
There are a hundred or more of them. We 
understand that they are from the rural dis- 



ANNIVERSARY OF THE GODDESS KUM FA. 257 

tricts of China. They are large, strong, and 
healthy, quite different from the miserable, 
stunted, sallow-faced creatures from the cities, 
of whom we see so many, showing that this 
inferiority is not inherent in the race, but is 
the effect of unfavorable circumstances. 

May 15, 1879. 

Day before yesterday was the anniversary of 
the birthday of the Chinese goddess Kum Fa, 
or Golden Flower, guardian of children. She 
is worshipped chiefly by women ; but some of 
the workers on the railroad begged branches 
of the feathery yellow acacia, which is now in 
bloom, to carry with them to the temple in San 
Francisco. They are so unpoetic in many ways, 
that we should hardly expect them to be so 
fond of flowers; but they mourn very much 
if the bulbs which they keep growing in stones 
and water in their houses in the winter do not 
open for the new year. 

The moon and the flowers they enjoy more 
than any thing else. In many things they are 
children, and like what children like. The 
moon holds a very important place to them, 
and the dates of the new year and all their 
festivals are determined by its changes. We 
used to see one of our boys standing, sometimes 



258 A SHIN WORSHIPPER. 

for hours together, with his arms folded, gaz- 
ing into the moonlit sky. When questioned 
as to what he was doing, he said he was " look- 
ing at the garden in the moon," and listening 
to " hear the star-men sing." 

This boy appeared to be a Shin worshipper. 
He made many drawings representing these 
spirits, with astonishing facility and artistic 
skill, but, when pressed to explain them, said it 
was not good to speak much about them. Some 
rode upon clouds ; some thrust their heads out 
of the water, or danced upon the backs of 
fishes; some looked out of caves among the 
hills. There were serene, peaceful ones, with 
flowers or musical instruments in their hands ; 
others were fierce and hostile, brandishing 
weapons, and exploding bombs. Everywhere 
was the wildest freedom and grace, and appar- 
ently much symbolic meaning which we could 
not understand. 



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